Gender Differences in Predicting High-Risk Drinking Among Undergraduate Students

• NCJ Number: 211781
• Journal: Journal of Drug Education Volume: 35 Issue: 1 Dated: 2005 Pages: 79-94
• Author(s): Dina J. Wilke Ph.D.; Darcy C. Siebert Ph.D.; Jorge Delva Ph.D.; Michael P. Smith M.A.; Richard L. Howell M.S.
• Date Published: 2005
• Length: 16 pages
• Sponsoring Agency: Anheuser-Busch Charitable Trust
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Survey; Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study examined gender differences in college students' high-risk drinking, which was determined by estimated blood alcohol concentration (eBAC) in relation to gender, height, weight, self-reported number of drinks, and hours spent drinking.

Abstract

The introduction explains a paradigm that posits drinking behavior as derived from dynamic person-context interactions that vary across individuals and across time. A literature review then notes that individual characteristics such as gender, age, and race have often been found to predict high-risk drinking. The dependent variable for the current study was high-risk drinking, based on guidelines for binge drinking recently adopted by the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (BAC of 0.08 gram percent or above), which is typically five drinks for men and four drinks for women in approximately 2 hours. The current study -- which involved responses to mailed questionnaires returned by 1,422 college students age 22 and under enrolled in a large university in the Southeastern United States -- used an estimated measure of BAC by asking respondents to indicate the number of drinks they consumed the last time they "partied;" eBAC was then calculated by adjusting the reported number of drinks by the respondent's height, weight, gender, and time in hours spent drinking. The independent variables were related to individual characteristics, interpersonal factors, and contextual factors. A three-step hierarchical logistic regression analysis found gender differences in the pathway to high-risk drinking. For men, high-risk drinking was predicted by a combination of individual characteristics and contextual factors. For women, interpersonal factors, along with individual characteristics and contextual factors, predicted high-risk drinking, highlighting the importance of understanding female sexual relationships and raising questions about women's risk-taking behavior. Implications are drawn for prevention and assessment. 1 figure, 2 tables, and 43 references