This study found that AA attendance was consistently associated with better alcohol use outcomes as well as increases in abstinent activities and social network support for abstinence, and decreases in drinking activities and social network support for drinking. In addition, when examined separately, social ties and activities both predicted drinking outcomes, but when combined it was network ties rather than activities that were most influential in relation to better alcohol use outcomes. Lagged mediational analyses revealed that AA's association with greater abstinence was partially explained by its ability to both increase pro-abstinent network ties and decrease pro-drinking network ties, whereas its association with decreased intensity of alcohol use was partially explained by reductions in pro-drinking network ties only. Subsidiary analyses revealed the relatively greater benefit of reducing pro-drinking ties compared to increasing pro-abstinent ties, on alcohol use outcomes, and that greater AA attendance was associated with larger magnitude reductions in pro-drinking influences compared to increases in pro-abstinent influences.
