2026/07/05 by Christophe Romein, Emese Kroon, Karis Colyer‐Patel +3 · 1 voice
Neuroscience · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Functional Brain Connectivity Studies #Health disparities and outcomes #Mental Health Research Topics
paper · doi:10.31234/osf.io/9af72_v2
openalex publication_date 2026/07/05 · openalex created_date 2026/07/06 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/14
Background: Despite the importance of social factors in the initiation and escalation of alcohol use, social processes related to alcohol use severity are typically studied in isolation. Because real-world social processes occur concurrently and may interact with one another as well as with age and sex, a network approach may provide a more ecologically valid framework. Hence, we used a network approach to examine associations between different social cognition measures and alcohol use severity, while also assessing the roles of age and sex. Methods: Alcohol users (N=936; 16-81yrs) completed the social and conformity subscales of the Drinking Motives Questionnaire Revised, the Social Reward Questionnaire, the Social Attunement Questionnaire, and measures of alcohol use severity. Using network analysis, we examined unique associations between social measures and alcohol use severity, the moderating role of age, and sex differences. Results: Alcohol use severity was linked to social drinking motives and sociability (i.e., the tendency to participate in social gatherings). In the age-moderated network, associations were largely stable across age, except for the association between sociability and alcohol use severity, which was weaker in older participants. We found no sex differences in the pattern of associations. Discussion: Alcohol use severity was primarily associated with general social engagement, while more specific social-cognitive measures were only indirectly related. Social drinking contexts may therefore be a key pathway to greater severity, especially in younger drinkers. Associations did not differ by sex, suggesting previously reported sex differences may reflect differences in prevalence, rather than sex moderating social factors.