Association Between Alcohol Expectancy and Drinking Behaviors in Summer Vacation and Last Year Among College Students.

Background: Drinking in summer vacation, as an important part of college students' drinking behavior, has rarely been studied. At present, there is no research to explore the association between alcohol expectancy and college students' drinking behavior during the summer vacation. Methods: A total of 487 college students were selected from three universities in Chongqing from July 30, 2017, to August 30, 2017, by cluster sampling. The electronic questionnaires were distributed to complete the anonymous survey related to drinking. The questionnaire on drinking mainly included baseline characteristics, influencing factors related to drinking, drinking behavior in the last year and summer vacation, and alcohol expectancy. Independent sample t-test and one-way ANOVA were used for multi-factor analysis. Multi-level logistic regression analysis and ordered logistic regression analysis were used for multivariate analysis. Results: The past drinking rate in the study group was 86.24%. In the past year, the drinking rate and binge drinking rate of college students were 63.24% and 23.20%. In summer drinking, these two indicators were 29.57% and 8.42%, respectively. About 92.50% of the moderate and heavy drinking groups among college students had drinking behavior during the summer vacation. The average negative expectancy among college students was 3.26 ± 0.87 while the average positive expectancy was 2.63 ± 0.66. In drinking last year, positive expectancy was a risk factor for occasional and light drinking compared with those of non-drinkers (P<0.05). In summer vacation drinking, compared with those of non-drinkers, negative expectancy was a protective factor for occasional drinking (OR: 1.847, 95% CI: 1.293-2.638), negative expectancy and positive expectancy were both influencing factors for light drinking (P<0.05). Conclusion: The drinking rate in the study group was at a high level in the past. The association between alcohol expectancy and drinking behavior among college students would be different according to the period and amount of drinking.

The effects of age on the severity of problem drinking: Mediating effects of positive alcohol expectancy and neural correlates.

Aging is associated with reduction in the severity of alcohol misuse. However, the psychological and neural mechanisms underlying the age-related changes remain unclear. Here, we tested the hypothesis that age-related diminution of positive alcohol expectancy (AE) mediated the effects of age on problem drinking and investigated the neural correlates of the mediating effects. Ninety-six drinkers 21-85 years of age, including social drinkers and those with mild/moderate alcohol use disorder (AUD), were assessed for global positive (GP) AE and problem drinking, each with the Alcohol Expectancy Questionnaire and Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT), and with brain imaging during alcohol cue exposure. We processed imaging data with published routines; identified the correlates shared between whole-brain regression against age, GP and AUDIT scores; and performed mediation and path analyses to explore the interrelationships between the clinical and neural variables. The results showed that age was negatively correlated with both GP and AUDIT scores, with GP score completely mediating the correlation between age and AUDIT score. Lower age and higher GP correlated with shared cue responses in bilateral parahippocampal gyrus and left middle occipital cortex (PHG/OC). Further, higher GP and AUDIT scores were associated with shared cue responses in bilateral rostral anterior cingulate cortex and caudate head (ACC/caudate). Path analyses demonstrated models with significant statistical fit and PHG/OC and ACC/caudate each interrelating age to GP and GP to AUDIT scores. These findings confirmed change in positive AE as a psychological mechanism mitigating alcohol misuse as individuals age and highlighted the neural processes of cue-reactivity interrelating age and alcohol use severity.

Positive alcohol expectancy and resting-state functional connectivity of the insula in problem drinking.

Positive alcohol expectancy (AE), a significant predictor of excessive alcohol consumption, is associated with heightened drinking motivation and reduced control. As the insula interacts with the limbic and prefrontal structures to integrate stimulus saliency, interoception, and cognitive control, the region may play a unique role in modulating AE. Here, we examined resting-state functional connectivity of the right and left insula in relation to AE in 180 adult drinkers. Whole-brain multiple regressions and path analysis were performed to delineate the inter-relationship between AE, insular connectivity, and drinking severity. We found that heightened AE was associated with diminished right insular connectivity with regions involved in negative emotion processing and self-control, including the amygdala, putamen, and ventromedial prefrontal cortex. In contrast, there was a positive relationship between AE and right insular connectivity with regions implicated in motivated responses to alcohol stimuli, including the superior parietal lobule, postcentral and superior frontal gyri. Path analysis showed that the two sets of right insular connectivity exhibited opposing associations with AE and that their net strength (i.e., "control minus motivation") was negatively correlated with AE and drinking severity. Analyses of the left insula seed, in contrast, did not yield regional connectivity in significant correlation with AE. These findings highlight the roles of right insula connectivity in motivational and regulatory processes that may differentially modulate drinking behavior. Recruitment of the motivational circuit and/or disengagement of the affective control circuit would be associated with heightened AE and heavier alcohol consumption.

Acute alcohol intoxication and alcohol expectancy effects on women's memory for consensual and non-consensual sexual activity.

Objective: To test whether acute alcohol intoxication and alcohol expectancy affects how accurately women remember consensual and non-consensual sexual activity that occurred during an interactive hypothetical dating scenario. Design: A balanced placebo randomized study that varied alcohol dose (mean Breath Alcohol Content; BrAC = 0.06%) and alcohol expectancy prior to participants encoding a hypothetical interactive rape scenario was implemented. Participants could elect to consent to sexual activity with a male partner in the hypothetical scenario. If they stopped consenting, non-consensual sexual intercourse (i.e., rape) was described. Seven days later, participants' memory for consensual and non-consensual sexual activity in the scenario was tested. Main outcome measures: Memory accuracy, confidence, and feelings of intoxication. Results: A total of 90 females (M age = 20.5, SD = 2.2) were tested regarding their memory accuracy for the consensual and non-consensual sexual activities in the scenario. A multi-level logistic regression predicting memory accuracy for the perpetrator's behaviors during the rape indicated no effect of alcohol intoxication. However, a main effect of alcohol expectancy was found, whereby participants who expected to consume alcohol, compared to those who did not, recalled the perpetrator's behaviors during the rape more accurately. A second regression predicting memory accuracy for consensual sexual activity found no main effects for alcohol intoxication or alcohol expectancy. Participants recalled consensual sexual activity with a high degree of accuracy. Calibration analyses indicated that accuracy increased with confidence level, regardless of intoxication level or alcohol expectancy condition, but that women tended to be overconfident in general. Conclusion: This study provides an important test of how accurately women remember consensual and non-consensual sexual activities. The accuracy of this information is important for forensic medical examinations and police investigations following an allegation of sexual assault. Increased memory accuracy was found for offence details when participants expected to consume alcohol, suggesting there may be important differences in attentional processes (e.g., hypervigilance) depending on whether threat is present. Further research is necessary to investigate memory for sexual violence in real-world settings and to test methods for ascertaining the most complete and reliable accounts.

Childhood social context in relation to alcohol expectancy through early adolescence: A latent profile approach.

BACKGROUND: The present study aims to (i) identify patterns in the changes of endorsed positive alcohol expectancies (AEs) through early adolescence and (ii) examine associated childhood social context predictors of such profiles. METHODS: We used three waves of longitudinal data from the Alcohol-Related Experiences among Children. The baseline sample comprised 928 6th graders from 17 elementary schools in northern Taiwan (response rate = 60 %); subsequent follow-up was conducted at 7th and 8th grade (follow-up rate = 88 %). Data concerning three domains of positive AEs (i.e., global positive transformation, enhancing social behaviors, and promoting relaxation), social context, and alcohol drinking were collected by self-administered questionnaires. Longitudinal latent profile and survey multinomial logistic regression analyses were used to evaluate the association estimates, stratified by childhood alcohol initiation. RESULTS: Three distinct profiles (decreasing, stable, and increasing) of positive AEs were identified for the alcohol-naïve children (n = 466); observing paternal drinking and watching TV more than two hours per day at baseline were strongly linked with the stable and increasing AE profiles (aOR = 1.96-4.80). For the alcohol-experienced children, four profiles (low decreasing, low increasing, high decreasing, and high increasing) emerged; observing maternal drinking was predictive for the high-increasing profile (aOR = 2.94). Regardless of childhood alcohol initiation, recent alcohol use appeared to be the strongest predictor for the increasing profiles of positive AEs. CONCLUSIONS: Strategies addressing pro-alcohol social contexts that facilitate a prominent increase in positive AEs should be considered when devising preventive programs targeting underage drinking behaviors and problems.

Validation of the Comprehensive Effects of Alcohol Questionnaire in Older Adults.

Background: Alcohol expectancies have been established as an important construct in the prediction of alcohol use among younger adults, but there is little understanding about the perceived expected effects of consuming alcohol in older adults. Beliefs about the expected effects of alcohol may be quite different in older adults compared to young adults, which may also play a different role in their drinking behavior. In older cohorts there may be stigma may be associated with drinking and the nature of drinking experiences may differ to those of younger adults. Existing measures of expectancies are based on the perspectives of younger adults and therefore warrant validation in an older sample. Objectives: The aim of this study is to validate the comprehensive effects of alcohol questionnaire (CEOA) in a sample of older adults, and to investigate the relationships between alcohol expectancies, their evaluations and alcohol use. Methods: A sample of community dwelling older adults (N = 473) completed self-report measures assessing drinking behavior and alcohol expectancies. Exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and hierarchical multiple regressions were conducted. Results: The final model of the CEOA supported two global dimensions of positive and negative expectancies, and showed excellent goodness-of-fit and internal consistency. Male drinkers were more likely to endorse positive expectancies and favorable evaluations of positive and negative expectancies. Favorable evaluations of positive expectancies were the strongest predictors of drinking frequency and quantity. Conclusions/Importance: The results support for the empirical validity of a two-factor expectancy model consisting of a 10-item negative expectancy factor and a 10-item positive expectancy factor. This more concise version could offer a more acceptable and time efficient measure of expectancies and valuations for older adults. Furthermore, the study provides important findings for the role of evaluations in their prediction of alcohol use.

Alcohol expectancy profile in late childhood with alcohol drinking and purchasing behaviors in adolescence.

BACKGROUND: The study aims to (i) identify the evolving profile of endorsed alcohol expectancies (AEs) during the transition from late childhood into early adolescence, and (ii) examine the connection between such profiles and subsequent alcohol drinking and purchasing in adolescence. METHODS: A prospective cohort of 928 sixth graders was recruited from 17 elementary schools in northern Taiwan in 2006 with follow-ups conducted in seventh and eighth grade. Information concerning AEs, individual characteristics, and social attributes were collected by self-administered questionnaires at baseline and in seventh grade; drinking behaviors and alcohol purchasing were assessed in eighth grade. Longitudinal latent profile and survey regression analyses were used to evaluate association estimates. RESULTS: Three distinct profiles of positive AEs were identified: stably low (37%), stably high (35%), and increasing (28%). Regardless of childhood-onset alcohol experience, endorsing the stably high-profile AEs was associated with increased drinking occasions (adjusted relative risk [aRR] = 1.49, 95% CI = 1.24-1.80), and having the increasing-profile AEs may elevate the likelihood of alcohol purchase in adolescence (adjusted odd ratio [aOR] = 2.57, 95% CI = 1.33-4.96). Additionally, parental drinking was the most influential social factor for drinking occasions (aRR = 1.43) whereas peer drinking was prominent for alcohol purchasing (aOR = 3.06). CONCLUSIONS: The evolving profile of alcohol expectancy in late childhood may predict alcohol drinking occasion and purchasing behaviors in adolescence. Underage drinking prevention efforts should target not only pro-alcohol social environments but also cognitive constructs (e.g., alcohol expectancy).

An experimental examination of alcohol consumption, alcohol expectancy, and self-blame on willingness to report a hypothetical rape.

This study experimentally examined the role of victim alcohol intoxication, and self-blame in perceiving and reporting rape to the police using a hypothetical interactive rape scenario. Participants (N = 79) were randomly assigned to consume alcohol (mean BAC = 0.07%) or tonic water before they engaged in the scenario. Alcohol expectancy was manipulated, and participant beliefs about the beverage they thought they had consumed and their feelings of intoxication were measured. Alcohol consumption and expectancy did not affect the likelihood that the nonconsensual intercourse depicted in the scenario was perceived and would be reported as rape. Participants with higher levels of self-blame were less likely to say they would report the hypothetical rape. Self-blame levels were higher for participants who believed they had consumed alcohol, and were associated with increased feelings of intoxication. The implications are discussed.

When Habits Are Dangerous: Alcohol Expectancies and Habitual Decision Making Predict Relapse in Alcohol Dependence.

BACKGROUND: Addiction is supposedly characterized by a shift from goal-directed to habitual decision making, thus facilitating automatic drug intake. The two-step task allows distinguishing between these mechanisms by computationally modeling goal-directed and habitual behavior as model-based and model-free control. In addicted patients, decision making may also strongly depend upon drug-associated expectations. Therefore, we investigated model-based versus model-free decision making and its neural correlates as well as alcohol expectancies in alcohol-dependent patients and healthy controls and assessed treatment outcome in patients. METHODS: Ninety detoxified, medication-free, alcohol-dependent patients and 96 age- and gender-matched control subjects underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging during the two-step task. Alcohol expectancies were measured with the Alcohol Expectancy Questionnaire. Over a follow-up period of 48 weeks, 37 patients remained abstinent and 53 patients relapsed as indicated by the Alcohol Timeline Followback method. RESULTS: Patients who relapsed displayed reduced medial prefrontal cortex activation during model-based decision making. Furthermore, high alcohol expectancies were associated with low model-based control in relapsers, while the opposite was observed in abstainers and healthy control subjects. However, reduced model-based control per se was not associated with subsequent relapse. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that poor treatment outcome in alcohol dependence does not simply result from a shift from model-based to model-free control but is instead dependent on the interaction between high drug expectancies and low model-based decision making. Reduced model-based medial prefrontal cortex signatures in those who relapse point to a neural correlate of relapse risk. These observations suggest that therapeutic interventions should target subjective alcohol expectancies.

Sex differences in the interacting roles of impulsivity and positive alcohol expectancy in problem drinking: A structural brain imaging study.

Alcohol expectancy and impulsivity are implicated in alcohol misuse. However, how these two risk factors interact to determine problem drinking and whether men and women differ in these risk processes remain unclear. In 158 social drinkers (86 women) assessed for Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT), positive alcohol expectancy, and Barratt impulsivity, we examined sex differences in these risk processes. Further, with structural brain imaging, we examined the neural bases underlying the relationship between these risk factors and problem drinking. The results of general linear modeling showed that alcohol expectancy best predicted problem drinking in women, whereas in men as well as in the combined group alcohol expectancy and impulsivity interacted to best predict problem drinking. Alcohol expectancy was associated with decreased gray matter volume (GMV) of the right posterior insula in women and the interaction of alcohol expectancy and impulsivity was associated with decreased GMV of the left thalamus in women and men combined and in men alone, albeit less significantly. These risk factors mediated the correlation between GMV and problem drinking. Conversely, models where GMV resulted from problem drinking were not supported. These new findings reveal distinct psychological factors that dispose men and women to problem drinking. Although mediation analyses did not determine a causal link, GMV reduction in the insula and thalamus may represent neural phenotype of these risk processes rather than the consequence of alcohol consumption in non-dependent social drinkers. The results add to the alcohol imaging literature which has largely focused on dependent individuals and help elucidate alterations in brain structures that may contribute to the transition from social to habitual drinking.

Alcohol Expectancy, Drinking Behavior, and Sexual Victimization Among Female and Male College Students.

College students have high rates of heavy drinking, and this dangerous behavior is strongly linked to sexual victimization. Although research has examined risk factors for sexual assault, few studies have simultaneously studied the various pathways through which risks may affect sexual assault and how these pathways may be uniquely different among females and males. As such, the current study uses path analyses to examine whether alcohol expectancies mediate the relationship between social factors (e.g., hooking up, amount friends drink) and drinking behavior and experiencing sexual victimization, and whether drinking behavior mediates the relationship between alcohol expectancies and sexual victimization among a college sample of 704 males and females from a large Midwestern university. For both females and males, sexual victimization was positively associated with child sexual abuse, hooking up more often, and heavier drinking, whereas greater alcohol expectancies were associated with sexual victimization only for females. Several mediating pathways were found for both females and males. Gender comparisons revealed that some of the pathways to sexual victimization such as hooking up, amount friends drink, and housing type operated differently for females and males.

Alcohol misuse in emerging adulthood: Association of dopamine and serotonin receptor genes with impulsivity-related cognition.

Impulsivity predicts alcohol misuse and risk for alcohol use disorder. Cognition mediates much of this association. Genes also account for a large amount of variance in alcohol misuse, with dopamine and serotonin receptor genes of particular interest, because of their role in motivated behavior. The precise psychological mechanisms through which such genes confer risk is unclear. Trait impulsivity conveys risk for alcohol misuse by influencing two distinct domains of cognition: beliefs about the reinforcing effects of alcohol consumption (positive alcohol expectancy) and the perceived ability to resist it (drinking refusal self-efficacy). This study investigated the effect of the dopamine-related polymorphism in the DRD2/ANKK1 gene (rs1800497) and a serotonin-related polymorphism in the HTR2A gene (rs6313) on associations between impulsivity, cognition, and alcohol misuse in 120 emerging adults (18-21years). HTR2A predicted lower positive alcohol expectancy, higher refusal self-efficacy, and lower alcohol misuse. However, neither polymorphism moderated the linkages between impulsivity, cognition, and alcohol misuse. This is the first report of an association between HTR2A and alcohol-related cognition. Theoretically-driven biopsychosocial models have potential to elucidate the specific cognitive mechanisms through which distal risk factors like genes and temperament affect alcohol misuse in emerging adulthood.

Development and Preliminary Validation of the Drinking Expectancy Sexual Vulnerabilities Questionnaire (DESV-Q): A Purpose-Specific Instrument for Rape-Perception Research.

BACKGROUND: Alcohol expectancies likely play a role in people's perceptions of alcohol-involved sexual violence. However, no appropriate measure exists to examine this link comprehensively. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this research was to develop an alcohol expectancy measure which captures young adults' beliefs about alcohol's role in sexual aggression and victimization. METHOD: Two cross-sectional samples of young Australian adults (18-25 years) were recruited for scale development (Phase 1) and scale validation (Phase 2). In Phase 1, participants (N = 201; 38.3% males) completed an online survey with an initial pool of alcohol expectancy items stated in terms of three targets (self, men, women) to identify the scale's factor structure and most effective items. A revised alcohol expectancy scale was then administered online to 322 young adults (39.6% males) in Phase 2. To assess the predictive, convergent, and discriminant validity of the scale, participants also completed established measures of personality, social desirability, alcohol use, general and context-specific alcohol expectancies, and impulsiveness. RESULTS: Principal axis factoring (Phase 1) and confirmatory factor analysis (Phase 2) resulted in a target-equivalent five-factor structure for the final 66-item Drinking Expectancy Sexual Vulnerabilities Questionnaire (DESV-Q). The factors were labeled (1) Sexual Coercion, (2) Sexual Vulnerability, (3) Confidence, (4) Self-Centeredness, and (5) Negative Cognitive and Behavioral Changes. The measure demonstrated effective items, high internal consistency, and satisfactory predictive, convergent, and discriminant validity. CONCLUSIONS: The DESV-Q is a purpose-specific instrument that could be used in future research to elucidate people's attributions for alcohol-involved sexual aggression and victimization.

Exploring the alcohol-behaviour link: Myopic self-enhancement in the absence of alcohol consumption as a function of past alcohol use.

Dual process accounts of the alcohol-behaviour link hypothesise that differences in drinking patterns will moderate the effects of exposure to alcohol-related cues on behaviour, such as when a placebo is administered. We test this hypothesis by adapting a paradigm used in alcohol myopia research to examine the effects of alcohol-related priming on self-enhancement behaviour amongst social drinkers. Participants were asked to engage in a computerised self-rating task prior to being exposed to alcohol related and/or motivational primes. A staged computer error then occurred, and participants were then asked to complete their self ratings again - this method allowed for an immediate assessment of the impact of alcohol and motivational primes on self enhancement. As predicted by alcohol myopia theory, the overall effect of priming with alcohol-related cues was not significant irrespective of response-conflict manipulations. However, drinker type moderated this effect such that heavier drinkers self-enhanced more after exposure to alcohol-related cues, but only in high-conflict conditions. This suggests that the efficacy of a placebo may be significantly moderated by individual differences in reactions to alcohol-related stimuli, and that dual process accounts of the effects of alcohol on behaviour better explains this variation than alcohol myopia theory.

Risk Factors for Self-reported Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol and/or Illicit Drugs Among Older Adults.

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY: Despite the increasing number of older adults who have a history of substance use, little research has been done on alcohol- and drug-related driving safety among older drivers. This study (a) examined risk factors for older adults' driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs (DUI) and (b) discerned differences between those aged 50-64 and those aged 65+. DESIGN AND METHODS: Data came from the public use files of the 2008-2012 National Survey on Drug Use and Health for respondents aged 50+ (N = 29,634). Descriptive statistics were used to present sample characteristics by past year substance use and self-reported DUI status for age groups 50-64 and 65+. Age group separate binary logistic regression analysis was used to identify risk factors for DUI. RESULTS: Of past-year substance users in the 50-64 and the 65+ age groups, 14.54% and 6.19%, respectively, self-reported DUI. Higher frequency alcohol use, binge drinking, marijuana use, and major depressive episode significantly increased the odds of DUI in both age groups. Lifetime arrest history was a predictor in the 65+ age group only. IMPLICATIONS: Research is needed to improve identification of older drivers at high risk of DUI. Driving safety assessments for older adults can incorporate screening for substance abuse and comorbid mental conditions to identify those at high DUI risk. Older adults who engage in risky substance use should be directed to appropriate services that address substance use and mental health problems concurrently.

Predicting Alcohol Misuse Among College Students in the US and South Korea.

This study examines contributing factors of alcohol misuse among college students in South Korea and the U.S. Exploratory factor analyses (EFA) on measurements of alcohol expectancy, alcohol efficacy, and accommodation resulted in social and personal causes for alcohol misuse. Social causes alone predicted alcohol misuse for both countries. Social factors constituted a much stronger predictor of alcohol misuse among South Korean students than among American students. Practical implications for effective deterrence of student binge drinking are discussed.

Validation of the 'drinking expectancy questionnaire for men who have sex with men' in Peru.

INTRODUCTION AND AIMS: Alcohol use disorders are highly prevalent among men who have sex with men (MSM) in Peru, where the HIV epidemic is concentrated 100-fold greater among MSM than in the general population. Drinking expectancies have been associated with the intent to drink and engage in high-risk behaviours. Assessing them in this population may uncover attractive intervention targets that in turn can be used to reduce problematic drinking and risky sexual behaviours. The drinking expectancy questionnaire for MSM (DEQ-MSM) was developed to accurately measure drinking expectancies, specifically among MSM. This study aimed to validate this instrument for the first time in Spanish, in South America and among MSM in Peru. DESIGN AND METHODS: To validate the DEQ-MSM among Spanish-speaking MSM in Peru, we used exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis in a sample of 5148 MSM, including 700 transgender women (TGW). RESULTS: Exploratory factor analysis showed a two-factor structure to the Spanish version of the DEQ-MSM (DEQ-MSM-S), which was similar for MSM and TGW. The reliability of the translated DEQ-MSM was excellent (α = 0.91). DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: The DEQ-MSM-S was shown to be highly reliable in a large population of Peruvian MSM and TGW. This short instrument can be effectively integrated into research or clinical practice, in order to identify alcohol-consuming, high-risk MSM, who can then be directed for further screening and/or intervention. Future research should aim to associate the Spanish version of the DEQ-MSM with risky sexual behaviours among this population, in order to identify potential intervention targets. [Vagenas P, Wickersham JA, Calabrese SK, Lama JR, Benites CM, Pun M, Sanchez J, Altice FL. Validation of the 'drinking expectancy questionnaire for men who have sex with men' in Peru. Drug Alcohol Rev 2015;34:559-66].

Young Australian adults' beliefs about alcohol's role in sexual aggression and victimisation.

Beliefs and misconceptions about sex, gender, and rape have been explored extensively to explain attributions concerning alcohol-involved sexual violence. However, less is known about the specific beliefs that people hold about how alcohol facilitates sexual aggression and victimisation. The present study aimed to identify these alcohol-related beliefs among young Australian adults. Six men and nine women (N = 15; 18-24 years) in focus groups (n = 13) and interviews (n = 2) were asked to discuss the role of alcohol in a hypothetical alcohol-involved rape. Using a consensual qualitative research methodology, the effects of alcohol that were seen to introduce, progress, and intensify risks for rape were: increased confidence; character transformation; impaired cognition; behavioural disinhibition; altered sexual negotiation; enhanced self-centredness; impaired awareness of wrongdoing; increased/decreased sexual assertiveness; and compromised self-protection. Some of the beliefs identified in this study are not currently captured in alcohol expectancy measures which assess people's beliefs about alcohol's effects on cognition, emotion, and behaviour. This study's findings offer a conceptual basis for the development of a new alcohol expectancy measure that can be used in future rape-perception research.

Explicating the role of sexual coercion and vulnerability alcohol expectancies in rape attributions.

Despite evidence suggesting that alcohol expectancies may influence people's rape perceptions, no study to date has measured context-specific expectancies comprehensively. This study represents an initial investigation of the role of sexual coercion and vulnerability alcohol expectancies in young Australian adults' rape blame attributions. Using a vignette method, it was hypothesized that participants' stronger expectancy endorsement would predict lesser perpetrator blame and greater victim blame. Participants (n = 210; 34.9% males; 18-25 years) read a hypothetical rape scenario and rated dimensions of blameworthiness attributed to the intoxicated sexual perpetrator and victim. Participants completed the Sexual Coercion and Sexual Vulnerability subscales of the Drinking Expectancy Sexual Vulnerabilities Questionnaire for the targets self, men, and women in addition to measures of traditional gender role attitudes and rape myth acceptance. Hierarchical multiple regressions revealed that, as expected, stronger sexual coercion expectancy predicted lower perpetrator blame and greater victim blame. Self-oriented expectancy predicted evaluations of the perpetrator whereas other-oriented expectancy predicted victim evaluations. These effects were robust after controlling for gender role attitudes and rape myth acceptance. Alcohol expectancies appear to be part of a network of beliefs and attitudes which perpetuate biased rape attributions and may be useful to challenge in altering rape perceptions.

Gray matter volume correlates of global positive alcohol expectancy in non-dependent adult drinkers.

Alcohol use and misuse is known to involve structural brain changes. Numerous imaging studies have examined changes in gray matter (GM) volumes in dependent drinkers, but there is little information on whether non-dependent drinking is associated with structural changes and whether these changes are related to psychological factors-such as alcohol expectancy-that influence drinking behavior. We used voxel-based morphometry (VBM) to examine whether the global positive scale of alcohol expectancy, as measured by the Alcohol Expectancy Questionnaire-3, is associated with specific structural markers and whether such markers are associated with drinking behavior in 113 adult non-dependent drinkers (66 women). Alcohol expectancy is positively correlated with GM volume of left precentral gyrus (PCG) in men and women combined and bilateral superior frontal gyri (SFG) in women, and negatively correlated with GM volume of the right ventral putamen in men. Furthermore, mediation analyses showed that the GM volume of PCG mediate the correlation of alcohol expectancy and the average number of drinks consumed per occasion and monthly total number of drinks in the past year. When recent drinking was directly accounted for in multiple regressions, GM volume of bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortices correlated positively with alcohol expectancy in the combined sample. To our knowledge, these results are the first to identify the structural brain correlates of alcohol expectancy and its mediation of drinking behaviors. These findings suggest that more studies are needed to investigate increased GM volume in the frontal cortices as a neural correlate of alcohol expectancy.