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Analysis of the Alcohol Expectancy Questionnaire Tension-Reduction Subscale (TR-AEQ) items in 503 social-drinking college subjects to discover common aspects and to evaluate factorial invariance across levels of alcohol intake and gender revealed an appropriate common-factor model with seven pairs of correlated disturbances. Partial factorial invariance was evident in drinking frequency and factorial invariance across gender validating the use of TR-AEQ for psychometric analysis of problem drinking behaviors.

The Symptom Checklist-90-R (SCL-90-R) has been proposed as a psychopathology assessment tool for substance abusers, but the validity of the SCL-90-R for this purpose remains to be verified. The results of a test validation study involving the administration of the SCL-90-R to 402 men and 227 women with substance abuse and concurrent psychiatric disorders are presented. The dimensional characteristics of the SCL-90-R are emphasized. The SCL-90-R dimensional structure is found to vary across genders.

Based on the assumption that individual difference factors can influence aspects of the social environment, it was predicted that individuals who exhibit high levels of irrational beliefs would appraise their interprersonal environment as less supportive than would individuals with lower levels of irrational beliefs. The second prediction was that irrational beliefs would be related positively to anxiety. Thirdly, it was expected that perceived social support would be related inversely to anxiety. The final prediction was that deficits in social support among individuals who exhibit irrational beliefs may account, in part, for their relatively high levels of anxiety. Results based on questionnaire data obtained from 39 college students supported all four hypotheses.