(PS1-29) The role of positive urgency and drinking motives in problematic alcohol use among socially anxious girls

Adolescent alcohol use poses significant health and safety risks. While youth drink less frequently than adults, they often consume greater quantities per occasion, and may be especially vulnerable to short- and long-term negative effects due to ongoing brain development. Socially anxious youth, and girls in particular, evidence elevated risk for the development of alcohol use problems (Kirsch et al., 2025; Kushner et al., 2011), despite often reported negative relations with drinking frequency. The majority of work has emphasized the role of coping motives for drinking (as opposed to social, enhancement, or conformity) in understanding these relations; however, impulsivity is a well-documented factor contributing to risk-taking among teens that also may play an important role. Indeed, despite understanding the potential danger of their behavior, factors such as impulsiveness and sensitivity to reward may make youth more prone to taking such risks regardless (Reniers et al., 2016). Despite a promising literature linking social anxiety, impulsiveness, and alcohol use among adults, few studies have directly examined teens (Tillfors et al., 2013; Van Zalk et al., 2020) and findings remain mixed. Further, given a primary focus on the management of negative emotions, no work has yet examined positive urgency (impulsivity/risk-taking in the context of intense positive emotion) and alcohol use among socially anxious youth, nor the role of motives for use in this relation. Accordingly, the current study examined the unique and interactive relations between positive urgency and drinking motives on alcohol use problems among socially anxious girls.

Participants were 35 community-recruited girls age 14-17 (75.7% white; 18.9% Hispanic/Latina) reporting elevated social anxiety (≥12 RCADS_SP; Chorpita et al., 2005) and past year alcohol use. After consent/assent in the laboratory, participants completed measures of positive urgency (UPPS-R-C; Zapolski et al., 2010), drinking motives (DMQ-R; Cooper, 1994), and alcohol use (AUDIT; Saunders et al., 1993). Correlations indicated positive urgency and all four motives were associated with alcohol use (r’s=.34-.61; p’s < .05); however, regression analyses with both urgency and motives (run separately for each motive) indicated unique variance accounted for only in the enhancement model, including a significant interaction (sr2=.17) such that girls reporting both elevated urgency and enhancement motives evidenced the greatest alcohol use problems. Findings highlight complex relations between impulsivity and alcohol use among socially anxious girls, and will be discussed in terms of future research (e.g., replication, larger samples, daily diary/laboratory modeling) and preliminary implications for early intervention efforts.