Another set of factors that can influence risk for alcoholism are those related to psychosocial learning. One prominent psychosocial learning model emphasizes alcohol expectancies, which are thought to reflect the influence of psychosocial learning on current drinking behavior. A substantial body of research with general population samples has demonstrated that positive alcohol expectancies predict increased drinking (Barnow et al., 2004; Cumsille, Sayer, & Graham, 2000; Ouellette, Gerrard, Gibbons, & Reis-Bergan,, 1999; Settles, Cyders, & Smith, 2010; Smith, Goldman, Greenbaum, & Christiansen, 1995) and the onset of adolescent problem drinking (Christiansen, Smith, Roehling, & Goldman, 1989; Smith & Goldman, 1994). Although some studies have found no relationship between positive expectancies and drinking onset for African American youth (Chartier, Hesselbrock, & Hesselbrock, 2009), most studies have found a positive relationship that is often comparable in magnitude to what has been observed among European Americans (Flory, Lynam, Milich, Leukefeld, & Clayton, 2004; McCarthy, Miller, Smith, & Smith, 2001). It is possible that the inconsistency in findings may be in part due to differences in which additional variables are included in model tests; in
