These results indicated that the positive relations between coping and social motives and binge drinking were significantly stronger in men than women. Longitudinal indirect effects of adolescent frequency of drunkenness on binge drinking and negative consequences of drinking through stress and drinking motives. Greater endorsement of coping motives was directly related to more negative consequences, and more relationship stress was indirectly related to more negative consequences from alcohol use through greater endorsement of coping motives.
The Prevalence of Stress Drinking Across Genders
“A lot of the research in this area is limited to two-drink taste test studies which really does not model impaired control over alcohol well. They had bar stools, a bartender, and allowed the participants — 105 men and 105 women — to intermingle. To me, impaired control over drinking is at the crux of addiction.”
- Because women’s bodies process alcohol differently, booze affects women’s brains more severely; it’s more likely to increase their risk of liver disease and cancer.
- But importantly, participants were not specifically instructed not to drink.
- Thus, individuals who experience stress may drink in order to reduce their tension and negative affect.
- Moving forward, it is crucial to adopt gender-specific approaches in addressing stress-related alcohol use.
Longitudinal Effects of Adolescent Drunkenness
Nonproblem drinkers tended to show a similar pattern of gender differences in drinking reactivity to that found in the overall sample, with men showing greater drinking reactivity to financial/legal problems, death of someone close, and emotional distress. Differences between women and men problem and nonproblem drinkers in the percentages reporting exposure to social influences and stressors We also reported that, compared with nonproblem drinkers, problem drinkers had higher levels of exposure to a variety of social influences, stressor situations, and emotional distress and showed higher drinking reactivity in these situations (Lemke et al., 2007). The findings are limited and inconsistent regarding possible gender differences in reactivity to the social influences of peers’ or partner’s drinking. It is important to note that gender differences in exposure to stressors may in part reflect differences in participants’ employment histories and in the size and composition of their social networks and may thus be expected to vary over time and across cultures.
Men’s drinking harms women and children, and the impact is worst in poorer countries
- Despite the potential for drinking motives to mediate the stress–alcohol misuse association, tests of this mediational model in normal young adult samples are limited.
- This study examined the role of drinking motives, including drinking to cope and drinking to socialize, as potential mediators of the association between normative life stressors and alcohol misuse.
- Women who experienced stress drank heavily regardless of if their first drink contained alcohol or not.
- These cultural differences can significantly impact how men and women approach alcohol as a stress-coping tool.
This means that alcohol is less diluted in a woman’s body, leading to higher blood alcohol concentrations even when consuming the same amount as a man of similar weight. As the cocktail glass teeters between his and her hands, society’s unspoken rules dictate who will reach for it first when stress comes knocking.
That is, men and women with problem drinking appear to share an elevated tendency to drink more in response to social influences, stressors, and emotional distress. In contrast, gender differences in drinking reactivity may help to explain differences in problem-drinking prevalence between men and women. Among problem drinkers, there were no significant gender differences in drinking reactivity in these situations (Table 3).
When men spend household money on alcohol, there may not be enough left for food, school fees, or medicine. Additional research will be needed to ascertain which conclusions generalize to other birth cohorts and social groups as well as cross-culturally. These results also may reflect the particular birth cohort and social milieu of respondents from whom results were obtained. For example, women may be more aware of interpersonal issues or may have a lower threshold than men for reporting interpersonal problems. Reporting that an event has occurred may be related to the salience of the situation and is itself a form of reactivity. This pattern is consistent with expectations based on the heavier alcohol consumption of men as manifested in men’s friendships and work relationships and in their partner relationships.
Stress Drinking Has a Gender Divide
On the other hand, women have historically faced more social stigma for drinking, especially in public or to excess. These influences are deeply ingrained in our society and can significantly impact how men and women approach alcohol as a stress-coping mechanism. The sociocultural landscape plays a pivotal role in shaping stress drinking patterns across genders. Coping mechanisms and their relation to gender play a significant role in stress drinking behaviors.
Stress drinking has a gender divide
Although gender differences in the associations between stress and drinking motives have been reported previously in some studies (e.g., King, Bernardy, & Hauner, 2003; Rice & Van Arsdale, 2010), those studies focused on general measures of perceived stress rather than domain-specific, normative stress. More frequent drunkenness in adolescence was significantly related to more young adult negative consequences and binge drinking through more occupational stress, which was then related to greater endorsement of social motives (see Table 3). Furthermore, endorsement of each drinking motive was positively related to binge drinking, and endorsement of social motives (but not coping motives) was related to negative consequences of drinking. Finally, a longitudinal model was estimated, using a multiple group analysis, to investigate the effect of frequency of drunkenness in adolescence on young adult stress, drinking motives, and binge drinking and negative consequences of alcohol use. In a college sample, Rice and Van Arsdale (2010) documented a significant indirect path from general perceived stress to negative consequences of drinking though coping motives.
Although men overall reported greater exposure to peers’ drinking than did women, this gender difference was not statistically significant among either nonproblem or problem drinkers. Comparisons in the overall sample indicated that men had greater drinking reactivity in most of the social influence or stressors situations that we assessed (Table 1). (1) Overall, do women and men differ in their exposure to social influences, stressors, and emotional distress?
There is also evidence that the association between stress and alcohol use depends on the measure of alcohol use and the type of stressor examined. Although these conditions may be stressful at other times as well, their importance is likely to be intensified in early adulthood when expectations and responsibilities in both domains increase. Stress is the body’s reaction to a challenge or demand and is accompanied by emotional or physical tension, and several models of alcohol use posit that unpleasant tension and/or negative emotions drive alcohol consumption (Cappell & Greeley, 1987; Sher & Grekin, 2007). Consistent with this perspective, women are more likely than men to report that good family relationships are important to them, whereas men are more likely to report that their work is a source of stress (American Psychological Association, 2010).
Psychological Factors Contributing to the Gender Divide
In terms of reactivity to stressors, current theorizing posits gender differences in the form of men’s and women’s reactivity to stressors rather than an overall gender difference in reactivity. Within each of these categories, we also distinguish between exposure and reactivity to social influences to drink and to stressors. Problem-drinking women and men tend to be exposed to somewhat different social influences and stressors but share a tendency to respond to these experiences with increased drinking. More broadly, the results suggest a need for a nuanced approach to investigating the linkages among stress, drinking motives, and alcohol misuse, one that considers gender and developmental stage in conceptualizing these associations. Evidence supporting the importance of normative occupational and relationship stress suggests that, in addition to negative life events, interventions to reduce alcohol misuse in early adulthood might attend to salient stressors frequently experienced during this developmental period.
Drinking Motives as Mediators of the Stress – Alcohol Use Association
“The important take-home message is that it is not ‘ok’ to apply models of alcohol addiction designed from studies of just cisgender men to cisgender women,” she says. “Theoretically, we expected both men and stress drinking has a gender divide women to need the stress and the prime dose to achieve the highest blood alcohol concentrations. Women who experienced stress drank heavily regardless of if their first drink contained alcohol or not. Men whose first drink contained alcohol and who then experienced stress drank more than men who received the alcohol-free drink. Some participants’ first drink contained roughly three times the amount of alcohol you would typically find in a drink. “Some individuals just keep drinking once they have some alcohol in their system.
Partners
For both men and women, all significant direct and indirect effects that were present in the cross-sectional model continued to be significant in the longitudinal model (see Table 3 and Figure 2). Then, each path was tested to determine if it differed significantly between men and women. Participants responded to the question, “Over the last 30 days, how many times have you had five or more drinks in a row? The four items were averaged to create a total score, with a higher score indicating more stress in romantic relationships. Four items from the Turner et al. (1995) stress measure formed a second factor (see Appendix) reflecting romantic relationship stress during the past six months. The four occupational stress items were averaged to create a total occupational stress score, with higher scores indicating more occupational stress.
A bootstrap approach (Shrout & Bolger, 2002) was used to investigate the indirect effects of each type of stressor on alcohol misuse through coping motives and social motives. Because drinking motives are considered to be the proximal reasons people drink (Kunsche et al., 2007), it was expected that the relationship between stress and alcohol misuse would be mediated by drinking motives (Hypothesis 2). Taken together, these findings suggest a greater sensitivity of women to interpersonal stress and stronger associations among stress, drinking to cope, and alcohol misuse for women than men. Furthermore, among adults seeking treatment for alcohol problems, women reported drinking more in response to negative emotions and interpersonal conflict than men did (Lau-Barraco, Skewes, & Stasiewicz, 2009), suggesting a greater vulnerability among women to emotional and interpersonal stress.
The indirect effect of relationship stress on binge drinking through social motives was significant, whereas the indirect effect of relationship stress through coping motives was not, partially supporting Hypothesis 2 (see Table 2). In turn, stronger endorsement of social motives was significantly related to more binge drinking (but not to negative consequences). Cross-sectional indirect effects of stress on binge drinking and negative consequences of drinking through drinking motives.
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