alcohol use even as they enter adolescence (as consistent with evidence in Colder et al., 1997 and Cooper, Frone, Russell, & Mudar, 1995). Such beliefs, as with any positive expectation for drinking, are predictive of greater alcohol use in adolescence (Reese, Chassin, & Molina, 1994). These positive beliefs about drinking are stronger in children of alcoholic fathers (Colder et al., 1997) and may indeed mediate COAs’ risk for substance involvement (Brown, Tate, Vik, Haas, & Aarons, 1999, though also see Colder et al., 1997). Moreover, expectancies and drinking motives are more strongly related to drinking among high school students from alcoholic versus non-alcoholic families (Mann, Chassin, & Sher, 1987). Thus, the development of such positive expectancies for alcohol use, particularly for the reduction of negative affect, are posited to partly mediate the relation between early childhood internalizing symptoms and subsequent risk for alcohol and drug use.
