Title

Alcohol expectancies of women and men in relation to alcohol use and perceptions of the effects of alcohol on the opposite sex

Authors

Authors

W. I. Borjesson;M. E. Dunn

Abbreviated Journal Title

Addict. Behav.

Keywords

alcohol expectancies; gender differences; perceptions of others; DRINKING REDUCTION; MEMORY NETWORK; SELF; CONSUMPTION; CHALLENGE; CHILDREN; OTHERS; AGE; Psychology, Clinical; Substance Abuse

Abstract

The present study was intended to identify specific alcohol expectancies of women and men that could be targeted in expectancy-based interventions to maximize their impact on alcohol use. The Alcohol Expectancy Questionnaire (AEQ) was revised to specifically refer to women, men, or the respondent, and was administered to 433 undergraduates with a measure of alcohol use. When asked about expectancies for themselves, females' and males' drinking correlated most highly with expectations of social facilitation. When asked about expectancies for the opposite sex, however, several other types of expectancies were related to respondents' alcohol use in addition to expectations of enhanced social experiences. Males' drinking corresponded to beliefs that women will be happier, more confident, and will sleep better if they have consumed alcohol. Females' drinking corresponded to beliefs that men will be less sexually inhibited and more romantic after drinking. These findings link past expectancy work with more recent attempts to model the mechanism by which expectancies influence alcohol use and may guide development of maximally effective expectancy-based interventions to reduce drinking. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Journal Title

Addictive Behaviors

Volume

26

Issue/Number

5

Publication Date

1-1-2001

Document Type

Article

Language

English

First Page

707

Last Page

719

WOS Identifier

WOS:000171105700007

ISSN

0306-4603

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