Friends or foes: social anxiety, peer affiliation, and drinking in middle school.

OBJECTIVE The relation between social anxiety and alcohol consumption suggests aspects of both risk and protection, but most research has focused on late adolescents and emerging adults. METHOD We investigated the synergistic impact of social anxiety, a need for affiliation with others, and perceived peer alcohol use on drinking in a sample of more than 1,500 early adolescents from southern California (48% girls). Via school-wide surveys, middle school students completed the Social Anxiety Scale for Children-Revised, a modified version of the Interpersonal Orientation Scale, as well as measures of perceived peer drinking and self-reported lifetime and current drinking. RESULTS For socially anxious youths, high levels of perceived peer use in conjunction with high levels of affiliation need was associated with greater alcohol use on average and more frequent episodic drinking. Specific to heavy episodic drinking, the interaction of social anxiety and perceived peer drinking seemed to affect girls and boys differentially. Sex differences emerged for the moderation of social anxiety's influence on drinking initiation by perceived peer influence. CONCLUSIONS These findings suggest that alcohol-related risks associated with social anxiety might be gender specific and more important in earlier stages of alcohol use than previously believed.