Personality and Individual Dierences 37 (2004) 517

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Are shyness and sociability still a dangerous combination for substance use? Evidence from a US and Canadian sample
Diane L. Santesso a, Louis A. Schmidt
a

a,*

, Nathan A. Fox

Department of Psychology, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L8S 4K1 b Institute for Child Study, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA

Received 27 January 2003; received in revised form 28 June 2003; accepted 11 August 2003 Available online 19 November 2003

Abstract A number of studies have suggested that shyness and sociability may be orthogonal dimensions of personality, each of which is associated with distinct behavioral and psychophysiological correlates, and that a combination of shyness and sociability may be a risk factor for illicit drug use. We examined whether self-reported shyness, sociability, and sensation seeking measures predicted substance use and substance use related behaviors in separate samples of undergraduates in the US and Canada. We found that a combination of shyness and sociability predicted substance use related behaviors in the US sample above and beyond either shyness or sociability alone, replicating and extending previous research. However, this pattern was not found for the Canadian sample. Interestingly, individuals in the Canadian sample who were low in shyness and low in sociability were likely to report high substance use. We also noted that individuals who scored high on measures of sensation seeking were likely to score high on substance use and substance use related behaviors across both samples, replicating previous work. Findings suggest that, while shyness alone may be a protective factor for substance use, a combination of shyness and sociability may be a possible risk factor for substance use and abuse in some cultural contexts. 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Shyness; Sociability; Sensation seeking; Risk-taking; Substance use and abuse; Illicit drugs

1. Introduction Over the last 20 years, there has been a growing interest directed toward identifying personality correlates of substance use. The importance of identifying personality factors that predict
*

Corresponding author. Tel.: +1-905-525-9140; fax: +1-905-529-6225. E-mail address: schmidtl@mcmaster.ca (L.A. Schmidt).

0191-8869/$ - see front matter 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2003.08.023

D.L. Santesso et al. / Personality and Individual Dierences 37 (2004) 517

substance use cannot be overlooked. Substance use in young adults and adolescents has been consistently associated with academic failure (Wills, Vaccaro, & McNamara, 1992), the loss of familial and interpersonal relationships (Newcomb & Earlywine, 1996; Stockwell, Hodgson, & Rankin, 1982), and delinquent behavior (Huizinga & Jakob-Chien, 1998; Loeber, StouthamerLoeber, & Raskin-White, 1999). Not surprisingly, the extant literature in the eld is diverse. The range of research has included personality factors such as the ve-factor model of personality (Gullone & Moore, 2000; Loukas, Krull, Chassin, & Carle, 2000), sensation-seeking (Liraud & Verdoux, 2000; Zuckerman & Kuhlman, 2000), social phobia (Lepine & Pelissolo, 1998), shyness and sociability (Page, 1990; Tucker et al., 1995), behavioral inhibition (Sher, Bartholow, & Wood, 2000), and other anxiety disorders (Kushner, Sher, & Erickson, 1999; Lewis & ONeill, 2000). However, there appears to be little to no agreement concerning the extent to which these diverse factors contribute to substance use and abuse. Furthermore, few studies have extended the research focus beyond any one particular personality factor. There are some personality styles that have been implicated in risk-taking behaviors and substance use more so than others. For example, the relation between individual dierences in sensation seeking and substance use is ubiquitous. Sensation seeking can be described as seeking novel, complex, and intense sensations and experiences, and the willingness to take physical, legal, social and nancial risks for the sake of such experiences (Zuckerman, 1994). Zuckerman argued that individuals scoring high on measures of sensation seeking anticipate positive arousal from participating in risky behaviors. Several studies have independently shown that sensation seeking was associated with high alcohol consumption (Johnson, 1989; Lagrange, Jones, Erb, & Reyes, 1995) and illicit drug use (Zuckerman, 1994; Zuckerman, Neary, & Brustman, 1970). Although less well-documented, studies of the relation between shyness and related constructs (e.g., social anxiety and social phobia) and substance use are growing in research popularity. Hartman (1986), for example, reported that a signicantly higher proportion of shy than non-shy individuals admitted using alcohol and drugs to lessen social anxiety. Similarly, social phobia patients often suer from comorbid alcohol problems (Mannuzza et al., 1995) and report that alcohol lessens their fearfulness and anxiety in social situations (Smail, Stockwell, Canter, & Hodgson, 1984). The short-term anxiolytic eects of alcohol and some illicit substances have been well described (see, e.g., Kushner, Sher, & Beitman, 1990; Kushner et al., 1999; Sher, 1987). Researchers therefore argue that shy and socially anxious individuals often use substances and illicit drugs to self-medicate, serving as a coping mechanism for psychosocial diculties (Arndt, Tyrell, Flaum, & Andreasen, 1992). However, others have failed to nd a consistent relation between shyness and alcohol use (Cheek & Melchior, 1990; Leary & Kowalski, 1995). The studies described above have treated shyness as a unitary construct. Researchers have, however, long recognized that dierent forms of shyness exist, and that these may emerge as a result of dierences in sociability (Asendorpf, 1990; Asendorpf & Meier, 1993; Cheek & Buss, 1981). For example, some individuals are quiet and reserved in social situations (i.e., they are introverts); others are quiet and inhibited in social situations because they are fearful (i.e., they are shy); and still others may be highly avoidant of social situations, but desire to aliate with others, and these individuals appear socially reticent and anxious because of an approachavoidant conict. Cheek and Buss (1981) examined the relation between shyness and sociability and demonstrated that the two dimensions were only modestly related; contrary to lay judgements, shyness is not merely low sociability. Individuals scoring high on measures of shyness did not

D.L. Santesso et al. / Personality and Individual Dierences 37 (2004) 517

necessarily report low sociability. Cheek and Buss also noted that some highly shy individuals varied on measures of sociability, and combinations of these two factors were related to distinct behavioral manifestations. For example, Cheek and Buss found that high shy/high social individuals exhibited more overt behavioral anxiety and appeared interpersonally impaired during social interactions compared with high shy/low social and low shy groups. This view has been supported in studies of children as well (e.g., Coplan, Rubin, Fox, Calkins, & Stewart, 1994). In addition, other work by Schmidt and his colleagues (Schmidt, 1999; Schmidt & Fox, 1994, 1995) has noted that shyness and sociability are distinguishable on measures of central (i.e., regional EEG) and autonomic (i.e., heart rate) psychophysiology, and that high shy/high social individuals (i.e., the conicted group) are distinguishable from the other three high and low combinations of shyness and sociability on these measures. Despite this growing corpus of research, little research attention has been directed toward understanding the contribution of both shyness and sociability to substance use and abuse. Over a decade ago, Page (1990) used the Cheek and Buss (1981) measurement model of shyness and sociability to understand personality risk factors that predict illicit substance use in a sample of male adolescents. He reasoned that high shy/high social individuals were at an increased risk for substance use because these behaviors may help them cope with an approachavoidance conict that they experience during and/or in anticipation of social interactions. Page found that males scoring high on measures of shyness were signicantly more likely to use illicit substances than those low on measures of shyness. Furthermore, adolescents scoring high on both shyness and sociability reported signicantly more use of hallucinogenic substances and slightly more use of cocaine and marijuana compared with other combinations of shyness and sociability. Page suggested that, although shyness alone was an important risk factor, shyness in combination with sociability further increased the risk for substance use. He argued that these individuals might resort to substance use in an attempt to overcome interpersonal impairment as suggested by Cheek and Buss (1981). More recently, however, a study investigating alcohol dependence and shyness in a sample of US Navy men found that, while shy males consumed alcohol in order to reduce social awkwardness and anxiety, no dierences were found in regards to reported sociability (Mann, 2000), suggesting that the relation among shyness, sociability, and substance use is not a foregone conclusion. Overall, there were two goals of the present study. The primary goal was to extend the Cheek and Buss (1981) measurement model on the relative independence of shyness and sociability to substance use measures in young adults in separate countries, and in so doing, also clarify previous literature on whether a combination of shyness and sociability is a risk factor for substance use. A second goal was an attempt to extend and clarify inconsistencies in the extant literature on the role that personality, in general, plays in substance use by considering several dierent measures of personality. We examined the relations among shyness, sociability, substance use, and substance use related behaviors in separate samples of undergraduates in the US and Canada using the Cheek and Buss (1981) model. It is important to point out, however, that this model is not without its critics. In a re-examination of the Cheek and Buss (1981) measurement model, Bruch and his colleagues (Bruch, Gorsky, Collins, & Berger, 1989) suggested that, because shyness and sociability are conceptually and statistically continuous dimensions, these measures should be examined in relation to outcome measures using regression procedures not multivariate approaches that have

D.L. Santesso et al. / Personality and Individual Dierences 37 (2004) 517

been done in many previous studies (e.g., Cheek & Buss, 1981; Schmidt, 1999; Schmidt & Fox, 1994, 1995). Bruch et al. (1989) suggested that the use of multi-variate approaches of these data creates pseudo-orthogonality, and this may limit the reliability of the data. Here, we used multiple regression procedures to eliminate the problems suggested by Bruch et al. (1989). We also examined the extent to which other personality features (e.g., measures of sensation seeking) that have long been implicated as an individual dierence variable related to risk-taking and substance use were associated with reported substance use.

2. Study 1 The rst study was conducted with a US sample at the University of Maryland, College Park, which is a large research-intensive university located in the northeast suburbs of the District of Columbia and is the main campus of the state system. We predicted that shyness alone, and in combination with sociability, would account for a signicant amount of variability in reported substance use and substance use related behaviors. In addition, given that the relation between individual dierences in sensation seeking and substance use is ubiquitous, we predicted that sensation seeking would account for a signicant amount of variability in reported substance use and substance use related behaviors above the contributions of sex, ethnicity, shyness, and sociability. 2.1. Method 2.1.1. Participants Participants comprised 231 (75 males, 156 females) young adults (M 21.6 years, SD 3.15) recruited from undergraduate psychology classes at the University of Maryland, College Park, MD. A majority of the students were caucasian (66.3%) and from middle class homes. All students were asked if they would volunteer to complete self-report personality and substance use questionnaires as part of an undergraduate psychology project. Students did not receive any compensation for their participation. 2.1.2. Procedures and measures We administered the following self-report measures of personality and substance use scales to the participants. 2.1.2.1. Cheek and Buss shyness and sociability scales (CBSS). Shyness was assessed using the 5 highest-loaded (Bruch et al., 1989) items from the original CBSS (Cheek, 1983; Cheek & Buss, 1981); an example item includes: I nd it hard to talk to strangers. Sociability was assessed using the 5-item CBSS (Cheek & Buss, 1981); an example item includes: I nd people more stimulating than anything else. Items were scored on a 5-point scale ranging from 0 (not at all characteristic) to 4 (extremely characteristic). Reliability and validity data are presented elsewhere (Bruch et al., 1989; Cheek & Buss, 1981). 2.1.2.2. Sensation-seeking scale (SSS). Sensation seeking was assessed using 40 items from the Sensation Seeking Scale Form V (Zuckerman, Eysenck, & Eysenck, 1978). This scale is designed

D.L. Santesso et al. / Personality and Individual Dierences 37 (2004) 517

to measure four factors of sensation seeking (10 items each): thrill and adventure seeking, experience seeking, disinhibition, and boredom susceptibility. An example of an item assessing thrill seeking is I would like to learn to y an airplane: an example of an item assessing boredom susceptibility is I prefer friends who are excitingly unpredictable. Participants are asked to indicate by circling True or False whether a given statement accurately describes them. Reliability and validity data for this scale are provided in Zuckerman et al. (1978). 2.1.2.3. Survey of alcohol and other drug use practices. This survey assessed substance use by measuring the frequency of use of 10 substances ranging from soft (e.g., marijuana) to hard (e.g., crack) drugs as well as 10 substance use related behaviors (Haberman, 1994). An example of an item from this survey includes: I have missed academic classes after a night of alcohol or other drug use. Participants are asked to indicate by circling a Yes or No if they have used a substance and, if Yes, to indicate the frequency of use. Frequencies range from used in past but not presently to use daily. For the purpose of the present study, we used only a Yes or No response. 2.1.3. Data analysis We performed separate hierarchical multiple regression analyses in order to determine the extent to which each demographic and personality variable predicted substance use and substance use related behaviors. Since the participants sex and racial/ethnic background may be important predictors of substance use and substance use related behaviors (see, e.g., Walton, Blow, Bingham, & Chermack, 2003), we entered sex (coded as 0 female, 1 male) and ethnicity (coded as 1 caucasian, 0 non-caucasian) simultaneously into the regression equation in the rst step. By doing this, we have allowed the variables sex and ethnicity to account for as much variability as possible before entering the other predictors. In the second step of the equation, shyness and sociability main eects were entered simultaneously. In the third step of the equation, we entered the interaction term shyness by sociability. Since sensation seeking has been consistently found to be a predictor of substance use, we entered the sensation seeking variables (thrill and adventure seeking, experience seeking, disinhibition, and boredom susceptibility) simultaneously into the fourth and nal step of the equation. By doing this, we were able to determine how much variability in the dependent variable could be accounted for by sensation seeking over and above that explained by the shyness by sociability interaction term. It is important to note that individuals with one or more unanswered questions on the measures collected were excluded from the analyses due to listwise deletion. We found that the pattern of missing data was random. 2.2. Results and discussion Table 1 presents the results of the hierarchical regression analyses. We will begin by discussing results for predicting substance use. As can be seen in Table 1, the model accounted for 37.3% of the variability in predicting substance use [F 9; 178 11:77, p < 0:01]. In the rst step of the analysis, ethnicity was a signicant predictor of substance use [t2 2:52, p < 0:05]. We found that non-caucasian ethnicity was associated with high reported substance use. In the second step of

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Table 1 Summary of hierarchical regression analysis for variables predicting substance use and substance use related behaviors in a US sample Variable Step 1 Sex Ethnicity Step 2 Shyness Sociability Step 3 Shyness Sociability Step 5 Thrill seeking Experience seeking Disinhibition Boredom susceptibility Note: p < 0:05;

Substance use B 0.56 )2.2 )0.09 0.08 0.01 0.04 0.40 0.58 0.15

Substance use related behaviors R

2

SEB )0.07 )0.18

DR

SEB

R2 0.06

DR2 0.06

0.04

0.04 5.18 0.11 )14.34 )0.21

0.09 )0.19 )0.09 0.10 0.25 0.37 0.03 0.23 0.40 0.08

0.06 )0.25 0.05 0.01 0.12 0.27 )0.37 )0.05 1.2 0.12 5.23 0.02 0.26

0.07 )0.09 0.01 0.10 0.51 0.50

0.01

0.03 0.40

p < 0:01; N 190.

the equation, we found that shyness, but not sociability, was a signicant predictor of substance use [t5 2:05, p < 0:05]. Individuals who reported low levels of shyness reported high substance use. We failed to nd a signicant eect for the shyness by sociability interaction term on substance use. In the nal step of the regression equation, experience seeking [t9 3:42, p < 0:01] and disinhibition [t9 5:81, p < 0:01] were both signicant predictors of substance use. High scores on these sensation-seeking measures were associated with high reported substance use. In terms of predicting substance use related behaviors, the model accounted for 50.2% of the variability [F 7; 185 25:48, p < 0:01] (see Table 1). Again, we found that non-caucasian ethnicity was associated with high reported substance use related behaviors [t2 2:90, p < 0:01]. In this analysis, we failed to nd any signicant association between the shyness or sociability terms and substance use related behaviors. In step 3, we found that the shyness by sociability interaction term signicantly predicted substance use related behaviors [t3 2:55, p < 0:05]. That is, individuals who reported both high shyness and high sociability reported high substance use related behaviors. In the nal step of the equation, we found that experience seeking [t5 2:01, p < 0:05] and disinhibition [t5 10:34, p < :01] also signicantly predicted substance use related behaviors, such that individuals who scored high on these sensation seeking measures scored high on substance use related behaviors.

3. Study 2 The results of the rst study demonstrated that a combination of shyness and sociability signicantly predicted substance use related behaviors in a sample of undergraduates at a large urban university in the US, replicating and extending previous work with adolescents (Page, 1990). It is, however, possible that this region may oer students more social alternatives to

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11

substance use compared with smaller regions. Thus, the goal of the second study was to extend these ndings to a Canadian sample. Study 2 was conducted with a Canadian sample at McMaster University, which is a medium-size research-intensive university located in the western suburbs of Hamilton, Ontario. The Hamilton region has a population of approximately 1/2 million residents. Given that much of the variability in substance use and substance use related behaviors was not accounted for by shyness, sociability, and sensation seeking alone in Study 1, we added another predictor to the equation: alcohol expectancies. Alcohol expectancies refer to the beliefs that people have about the eects of alcohol on their mood and behavior (Bruch et al., 1992; Bruch, Rivet, Heimberg, & Levin, 1997; Goldman, Brown, & Christiansen, 1987). Recent research suggests that the expectation that alcohol consumption will produce desirable outcomes (e.g., increased sociability, increased positive mood and/or decreased negative mood) is associated with greater alcohol use and drinking behaviors (Goldman et al., 1987; Kassel, Jackson, & Unrod, 2000; Shiman & Wills, 1985). Shy and socially anxious people should hold higher alcohol expectancies compared with non-shy individuals. However, results have not always been consistent with this hypothesis (Bruch et al., 1997). Accordingly, we added this measure to Study 2 in an attempt to determine: (1) if alcohol expectancies were a signicant predictor of substance use and substance use related behaviors, and (2) which personality factors were associated with alcohol expectancies. 3.1. Method 3.1.1. Participants Participants comprised 246 (66 males, 180 females) young adults (M 19.31 years, SD 1.38) recruited from undergraduate psychology classes at McMaster University. A majority of students were caucasian (60.9%) and from middle class homes. All students were asked to volunteer to complete self-report personality and substance use questionnaires. Students did not receive any compensation for their participation. 3.1.2. Procedures and measures We administered identical measures to those used in the US sample (described above) as well as a questionnaire designed to assess alcohol expectancies to the Canadian sample. 3.1.2.1. Alcohol expectancies for social evaluative situations scale (AESES). This scale comprises 10 items to assess the positive outcomes resulting from the use of alcohol in social situations (Bruch et al., 1992). Participants are instructed to indicate how they think alcohol would aect them. An example of a statement is: When I am drinking alcohol I feel freer to be myself and do whatever I want. Items are scored on a 5-point scale ranging from 1 (not at all true) to 5 (very much true). 3.1.3. Data analysis A hierarchical multiple regression analysis similar to that described in Study 1 was performed separately using ethnicity, sex, and measures of shyness, sociability, and sensation seeking as predictors of substance use and substance use related behaviors. However, in the fourth step of the

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regression equation, we entered the predictor alcohol expectancy along with the sensation seeking variables. It is important to note that individuals with one or more unanswered questions on the measures collected were excluded from the analyses due to listwise deletion. We found that the pattern of missing data was random. 3.2. Results and discussion Table 2 presents results of the hierarchical regression analyses. We will begin by discussing results for predicting substance use. As can be seen in Table 2, the model accounted for 37.6% of the variability in predicting substance use [F 10; 151 9:08, p < 0:01]. In the rst step of the analysis, ethnicity was a signicant predictor of substance use [t2 2:84, p < 0:01]. In contrast to the US sample, we found that caucasian ethnicity was associated with high reported substance use. In the second step of the equation, we found that shyness [t4 3:07, p < 0:01] and sociability [t4 2:76, p < 0:01] were each signicant predictors of substance use. Individuals who reported low levels of shyness and low levels of sociability reported high substance use. We failed to nd a signicant eect for the shyness by sociability interaction term on substance use. In the nal step of the regression equation, experience seeking [t10 3:02, p < 0:01] and disinhibition [t10 3:41, p < 0:01] were both signicant predictors of substance use, similar to the US sample. High scores on these sensation-seeking measures were associated with high reported substance use. In terms of predicting substance use related behaviors, the model accounted for 47.6% of the variability [F 10; 196 17:81, p < 0:01] (see Table 2). Again, in the rst step, we found that ethnicity was a signicant predictor of substance use related behaviors [t2 3:38, p < 0:01],
Table 2 Summary of hierarchical regression analysis for variables predicting substance use and substance use related behaviors in a Canadian sample Variable Step 1 Sex Ethnicity Step 2 Shyness Sociability Step 3 Shyness sociability Step 4 Alcohol expectancy Thrill seeking Experience seeking Disinhibition Boredom susceptibility Note:

Substance use B 0.21 0.50 )0.36 )0.46

Substance use related behaviors R2 0.06

SEB 0.08 0.22

DR2 0.06

B 0.45 1.05

SEB 0.09 0.23

R2 0.06

DR2 0.06

0.13 )0.24 )0.22 0.13 )0.02 0.01 )0.03 0.12 0.14 0.04 )0.02 0.38 0.14 )0.06 0.23 0.33 )0.07

0.07 )0.45 )0.10 0.00 )0.06 0.25 0.03 )0.09 0.66 0.49 0.05 0.15 )0.11 0.03 0.56 0.05 0.02

0.08 )0.15 )0.03 0.08 0.48

0.02

0.00 0.40

p < 0:01; p < 0:05; N 218.

D.L. Santesso et al. / Personality and Individual Dierences 37 (2004) 517

13

with caucasian being related to high substance use related behaviors. In the second step of the equation, low levels of shyness were signicantly predictive of high substance use related behaviors [t4 2:04, p < 0:05]. In contrast to the US sample, in this analysis, we failed to nd any signicant association of the shyness by sociability interaction term and substance use related behaviors. In the nal step, we found that alcohol expectancies [t10 2:52, p < 0:05] and disinhibition [t10 7:33, p < 0:01] signicantly predicted substance use related behaviors, such that individuals who scored high on these measures reported more substance use related behaviors.

4. General discussion The present study used the Cheek and Buss (1981) measurement model as a conceptual platform to understand the role of shyness and sociability in substance use and substance use related behaviors in two separate samples. We also examined the relations between various personality measures and substance use and substance use related behaviors. 4.1. Are shyness and sociability still a dangerous combination for substance use? The present study examined the interaction between shyness and sociability in predicting substance use and substance use related behaviors. In Study 1, we found that an interaction of shyness and sociability predicted substance use related behaviors. Undergraduates in the US who rated themselves as shy and social also reported engaging in a high degree of substance use related behaviors (e.g., I have missed academic classes after a night of alcohol or other drug use). This nding was consistent with Page (1990) in which he noted that a combination of shyness and sociability was a more powerful predictor of illicit drug use among adolescents than shyness or sociability alone. This nding also extends the Cheek and Buss (1981) model on the relative independence of shyness and sociability to measures of substance use related behaviors in that an interaction of both shyness and sociability accounts for signicant variance in behavior. However, the same pattern of ndings was not evidenced for the substance use measure in Study 1, nor was the shyness and sociability interaction term predictive of either measures of substance use or the substance use related behaviors in Canadian undergraduates (Study 2). These dierential patterns of ndings are interesting. It might be that only measures of substance use related behaviors are sensitive to personality inuences and other culturally-determined issues among undergraduates in the US, but not among Canadian undergraduates. Subtle cultural and demographic variables may have contributed to these dierent patterns of ndings. Future research needs to explore this issue by examining undergraduates attending universities in other geographic and demographic areas in North America as well as in other countries. The Cheek and Buss (1981) measure model has been extended to other cultures, most recently in German (Czeschlik & Nurk, 1995) and Portuguese (Neto, 1996) translations. We also found that shyness alone was a signicant predictor of substance use in both the US and Canada. Young adults low on measures of shyness reported high substance use. Interestingly, in the case of the Canadian sample, low shy individuals also reported high substance use related behaviors, and low sociable undergraduates reported high substance use related behaviors. These

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latter ndings in the Canadian sample were not evidenced in the US sample. Overall, these ndings are inconsistent with the notion that shy individuals use alcohol and other illicit substances as a coping mechanism to decrease anxiety during and/or in anticipation of social encounters. Instead, these results suggest that individuals who do not experience fear or withdrawal tendencies in social situations are more likely to engage in alcohol and drug use. Perhaps it is the non-shy individuals who allow themselves to engage in such behaviors because they feel free of self-preoccupation and concern for the social ramications of their substance use. This study is not necessarily at odds with previous research in which associations between social anxiety and social phobia and increased substance use have been found. Instead, it suggests that shyness may be qualitatively dierent from other forms of social anxiety and should not be pathologized to the same extent, and that culture and demographics inuence personality contributions to substance use. It may be that low shy and low sociable individuals are introverted. Although previous ndings suggest that introversion is a protective factor for substance use, it may be this personality style, not shyness, that is a risk factor for the use of some substances (see e.g., Spotz & Shontz, 1984). 4.2. Inuence of personality factors on substance use The current ndings also add to the extant literature that suggests that sensation seeking is perhaps the most robust personality predictor of substance use and substance use related behaviors. In both the US and Canadian sample, young adults who scored high on measures of sensation seeking reported high substance use and substance use related behaviors. Disinhibition and experience seeking, in particular, accounted for the most variability in substance use in both samples. These ndings suggest that, although low shyness was an important predictor, the willingness to take risks and the desire for intense and novel situations were the best predictors of substance use and substance use related behaviors. Given that these ndings are based on selfreport data, future research should consider using a multi-measure approach in addition to subjective measures. One possible direction would be to examine the cognitive and physiological underpinnings of sensation seeking to determine what contributes to these substance use behaviors. Another important variable aecting substance use and substance use related behaviors that warrants discussion is that of alcohol expectancies. This measure was added to the regression equation in Study 2. We noted that individuals who expected positive outcomes of alcohol use were more likely to engage in substance use related behaviors than those who did not expect positive outcomes. This pattern of ndings is largely consistent with early work by Bruch and his colleagues (Bruch et al., 1997). This variable did not, however, predict substance use itself. This is not surprising given that substance use included a range of substances from soft (e.g., alcohol, marijuana) to hard (e.g., cocaine) drugs whereas most of the substance use related behaviors were related to alcohol use only. 4.3. Inuence of demographic factors on substance use Results of the present study demonstrated that ethnicity was a signicant predictor of substance use and substance use related behaviors. In the US study, non-caucasian ethnicity was associated with high substance use and substance use related behaviors. This nding was reversed in the

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15

Canadian sample, such that caucasian ethnicity was associated with high substance use and substance use related behaviors. These results are not surprising given that the US sample was derived from a large university close to Washington, DC, which is a culturally-diverse area, whereas the Canadian sample was derived from a relatively smaller, more homogenous campus in southern Ontario. Results suggest that in large urban areas, non-caucasian young adults may be particularly at risk for substance use and substance use related behaviors. Unfortunately, the present study did not assess socio-economic status, behavioral history, or peer relationships in either sample to elucidate the possible causes of the dierences between caucasian and noncaucasian adults. Future research needs to consider these factors. 4.4. Conclusion and implications The present ndings suggest that shyness and sociability may contribute to substance use related behaviors among young adults living around and attending a large urban university in the US. Current ndings also replicate the long-standing notions of the contribution of sensation seeking to substance use and substance use related behaviors in two dierent international samples. The present ndings also raise the possibility that subtle cultural and demographic factors may inuence the relations between personality factors and substance use and substance use related behaviors.

Acknowledgements This research was supported by grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC 410-99-1206) awarded to L.A.S, and from the National Institutes of Health (HD 17899) awarded to N.A.F. We wish to thank Andrea Ashbaugh, Amy Young (at McMaster), Heather Henderson, and Jeremy Pape (at Maryland) for their help with data collection.

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