Perceived Psychological Control Relates to Coping-related Drinking Motives via Social Anxiety Among Adolescents: A Cross-sectional Mediation Analysis.

OBJECTIVE: Accumulating evidence suggests that particular parenting behaviors (e.g., elevated psychological control) may increase risk for both problematic social anxiety and alcohol use among youth; however, no work has yet examined these factors together in a single model. Building developmentally-sensitive models of problematic alcohol use trajectories is key to developing effective prevention and intervention strategies.

METHOD: The present study includes 94 adolescents (ages 14-17 years; 53.3% girls; 89.2% White) entering a treatment facility for a variety of internalizing and externalizing forms of psychological distress. Levels of perceived parental psychological control, social anxiety, and coping-related drinking motives were assessed.

RESULTS: Higher levels of perceived psychological control was associated with a greater endorsement of coping-related drinking motives; however, a significant proportion of that association was accounted for by elevated social anxiety symptoms.

CONCLUSIONS: These data extend the existing literature and lay groundwork for more sophisticated experimental and longitudinal designs to corroborate the findings. Moreover, personality-targeted drinking interventions for adolescents may benefit from identifying elevated perceived psychological control as a developmentally relevant risk-factor for social anxiety and problematic drinking motives and administering relevant interventions (e.g., personality-targeted coping skills training, parent-involved care) before drinking patterns are established.