According to a recent model of alcohol use (Hull, 1981), individuals moderate their sensitivity to the implications of success and failure by drinking following personal failure to reduce self-consciousness and not drinking following success to remain self-conscious. To test the hypothesis that adolescent alcohol consumption would be a joint function of the individual's level of private self-consciousness and personal experiences of success and failure, 819 high school students completed a self-consciousness inventory, a questionnaire dealing with environmental and behavioral factors relating to drinking, and an index of weekly alcohol consumption. Consistent with the hypothesis, results showed personal success/failure in school was significantly more predictive of alcohol use among high than low self-conscious individuals. In addition, for both high and low self-conscious subjects, alcohol use was shown to be a function of the individual's general level of behavioral deviance and friends' attitudes and behaviors toward alcohol use. Even after taking into consideration these alternative predictors, alcohol use remained more strongly associated with personal success/failure among high than low private self-conscious individuals. (Author/JAC)