Heavy drinking among college students is prevalent and is associated with a range of negative consequences affecting both individual drinkers and university communities. Theory-driven and controlled examination of etiological processes that contribute to heavy drinking in this population is needed. Social Learning Theory (SLT; Bandura, 1977; 1986) conceptualizes alcohol use as resulting from a complex interaction of individual and environmental factors such as exposure to alcohol cues, affective state, and alcohol expectancies. In particular, alcohol expectancies are thought to mediate relations between individual/environmental factors and drinking-related outcomes. Although associations between cue, mood, alcohol expectancies, and urge to drink have been posited, little is known currently about the interactive influences of these factors. Further, studies of expectancy processes have been sparse, and moderators of such processes have not been examined. This new-investigator R03 proposes to utilize a controlled laboratory design to examine theoretical processes by which environmental (cue) and affective (negative affect) factors affect alcohol-related cognitions (expectancy, expectancy accessibility, expectancy reactivity), and urges to drink. Expectancy accessibility is measured using a novel computerized task. Both physiological and self-report measures of cue-reactivity and mood are utilized. College students (N=192) will be assigned randomly to either alcohol slide cue stimuli or non-alcoholic beverage slide cue stimuli and to either a negative or neutral affect induction paradigm (AIP) in a 2X2 design. Main and interactive effects of alcohol cue and negative affect on expectancy accessibility will be tested. Potential individual difference-level moderators of these effects (i.e., drinking status, coping motives, family alcoholism history) will be examined. Additionally, the mediational role of EA in associations between alcohol cue exposure, negative affect, and urge to drink will be tested. This research has important implications for the development of effective alcohol interventions for college students, and will lay the groundwork for future, larger-scale studies of environmental, affective, and cognitive etiological mechanisms underlying young adult drinking.
