The analyses included all available data on the study variables from grade 12 and early adulthood by using maximum likelihood estimation. Participants responded to the question, “Over the last 30 days, how many times have you had five or more drinks in a row? Data were collected annually through written questionnaires administered at school each fall in adolescence.
Correlations Among Measures of Emotional Arousal by Gender
In summarizing the literature on gender differences in drinking, Nolen-Hoeksema (2004) noted that “predictors of heavy drinking and alcohol use disorders are more similar than different in women and men, but women may be less likely than men to carry certain of these risk factors” (p. 982). Our findings are generally consistent with this summary statement and highlight the fact that conclusions about gender differences in drinking are likely to vary depending on whether analyses focus on general population samples or exclusively on problem drinkers. In a previous article, which did not consider gender differences, we reported that social influences (i.e., peers’ or partner’s drinking) and stressors (i.e., family interpersonal problems and emotional distress) were often linked to increases in alcohol consumption.
Starting in the ’90s, alcohol companies launched products like Smirnoff Ice that were meant to appeal to young women. A book in the early 2000s promoted the idea that a thin, fabulous, European lifestyle allowed women to drink wine with almost every meal. Males typically feel the effects of alcohol more slowly due to larger body size and greater fluid volume. It’s also important to note that the CDC’s moderate consumption guidelines refer to standard drinks. A cocktail we order at the bar or a beverage we buy at the store may not always be equal to one standard drink. Calculator tools created by the US National Institutes of Health can help us determine the number of standard drinks in our alcoholic beverages.
Overall gender differences
On the other hand, women have historically faced more social stigma for drinking, especially in public or to excess. This stigma can lead to hidden drinking behaviors or reluctance to seek help for alcohol-related issues. However, changing social norms and increased gender equality in many societies have led to a narrowing of the gender gap in alcohol consumption, particularly among younger generations. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 58% of adult men reported drinking within the past month and 49% of adult women reported drinking within the past month. Similarly, a higher percentage of men report binge drinking at 21% compared to 13% of women. One in five Australian women aged 40 to 65 are binge-drinking, according to 2022 research, while the numbers of 45- to 60-year-olds having more than two standard drinks daily has grown too, says Ammit.
Data source and study sample
In retrospect, it is possible that college students who are lower in depressive symptoms may be drinking for other reasons (e.g., to facilitate social bonding). In support of this view, we found that social drinking motives were positively correlated with peak drinks and drinks per week. In addition, studies have shown that drinking for social reasons (e.g., to reap social benefit) is related to higher drinking levels (e.g., Halim, et al., 2012; Lee, et al., 2007).
These cultural differences can significantly impact how men and women approach alcohol as a stress-coping tool. When compared with those reporting no discrimination, participants with high levels had five times the odds of screening positive for either depression or anxiety, and nearly nine times the odds of screening positive for both. However, alcohol is harmful for both men and women and it’s important to note that individual differences aside from gender can also impact alcohol’s effect on us. With a rise in female drinking trends and alcohol-related harms, we’re urged to take a closer look at how alcohol affects men and women differently.
Longitudinal Effects of Adolescent Drunkenness
They had bar stools, a bartender, and allowed the participants — 105 men and 105 women — to intermingle. Sexist doctors were “more likely to just see women as making annoying complaints that were about things that were all in their heads. And it was delightful to have a pill that seemed to take care of that, from the doctor’s point of view,” says David Herzberg, a historian at the University at Buffalo and the author of Happy Pills in America. Freelance journalists, actually employed by pharmaceutical companies, wrote articles for popular magazines about how sedatives “could cure everything from the blahs to sexual frigidity … every kind of a la mode problem that women experienced,” Herzberg adds. Women were twice as likely to be prescribed the pills as men; at one point, a fifth of American women were taking Valium. When factors are combined – for example, adding financial insecurity or immigration status to racism – compounded health challenges arise.
- (In response to Stat, which broke the story, NIAAA Director George Koob said he meant that he wouldn’t support “research that was not of the highest scientific quality.”) The alcohol industry has spent more and more in political contributions with every presidential election cycle.
- In contrast, gender differences in drinking reactivity among problem drinkers were negligible.
- A sample of late-middle-age community residents was recruited to participate in a longitudinal study of social and stress-related influences on drinking behaviors.
Alcohol-Cue Condition
But who ends up stress drinking has a gender divide with the condition is down to a complex mix of factors, including genetics, environmental factors, and occupational stress. Part of the problem in teasing out these risk factors is the research into alcohol use tends to be split along gender lines — most of it is in men. Women have higher rates of stress-related mental health disorders such as depression and anxiety. Men, while less likely to be diagnosed with these conditions, show higher rates of substance abuse and are at greater risk for suicide, which may be partly attributed to unaddressed stress and mental health issues.
King and colleagues (2003) found similarities between problem-drinking men and women in level of overall stressful life events and stressors in the areas of family, work, and legal problems, but women tended to report more health stressors (see also Miller and Cervantes, 1997). Among problem drinkers, women generally have higher levels of depression and anxiety, even taking into account the rates of these disorders in the general population (Brady and Randall, 1999; Kessler et al., 1997; King et al. 2003). In many cultures, men are expected to be strong and resilient in the face of stress, which can lead to a reluctance to seek help or express vulnerability. This expectation may drive some men to use alcohol stress drinking has a gender divide as a socially acceptable way to cope with stress. Women, while facing their own set of social pressures, may be more likely to face stigma for drinking to cope with stress, potentially leading to underreporting or hidden drinking behaviors. The biological differences between men and women play a significant role in how they respond to both stress and alcohol.
As discrimination increased, the increase in screening positive for depression, anxiety or both varied by race, with a more noticeable rise among groups that are often overlooked in these discussions – white, Asian and multiracial adults. Women and immigrants, people with disabilities and those who are overweight, obese or struggling with food insecurity also reported higher levels. My team and I analyzed data from the 2023 National Health Interview Survey, which included a weighted sample of nearly 30,000 U.S. adults, adjusted to accurately reflect more than 258 million people – approximately 75% of the country.
These expectations can create barriers to seeking help or expressing vulnerability when faced with stress. It can be tempting to shut down any anti-alcohol message with the argument that women should be allowed to drink heavily if they want to. Johnston told me she doesn’t travel to college campuses anymore; she gets too much pushback from students who say they have a right to drink, and no one’s going to tell them otherwise.
For example, in the present study, women reported greater histories of depressive disorders than men. It is unclear without longitudinal study whether these women’s depression histories lead them to be more sensitized towards sadness/anxiety following stress or whether their sadness/anxiety responses to stress preceded their development of depressive disorders. Future longitudinal studies should examine relations between gender differences in stress response and in psychopathology over time. In addition, the present study had a relatively small sample without full distribution across racial/ethnic groups, which limited the power to examine whether gender differences in stress response differed by race/ethnicity.
As predicted, women reported greater subjective sadness and anxiety following the stress induction than men. Our measure of behavioral/bodily arousal largely tapped anxiety (e.g., restlessness) or sadness (e.g., crying) behaviors and bodily sensations and thus may best be considered a behavioral or bodily indicator of anxiety/sadness. Also, while previous research has shown that stress increases drinking behavior (Cooper et al., 1992; Lang et al., 1989; Marlatt et al., 1975; Sinha, 2001a; Tucker et al., 1981), few laboratory studies have assessed gender differences in the urge to drink following stress.
Although women generally consume less alcohol than men, they may be at a greater risk for alcohol-related psychological distress. The aim of the current study is to evaluate whether the association between alcohol consumption and psychological distress, including stress, depressed mood, and suicidal ideation and the risks of psychological distress differ based on gender. We previously reported that exposure to social influences and stressors was generally higher among problem drinkers than among nonproblem drinkers (Lemke et al., 2007), a finding confirmed here for both men and women. That is, men were more likely to be problem drinkers, but they reported equivalent or lower rates of exposure to most stressors. Skaff and colleagues (1999) found similarities in overall levels of life events experienced by problem-drinking men and women, but men were more likely than women to report stressors related to work and less likely to report stressors related to their health or to problems with relatives.
Third, because this was a cross-sectional study, the establishment of cause-and-effect relationships between alcohol and psychological distress remains limited. Although multiple regression analysis was used to infer the causal relationship, these inferences can be further supported through animal and prospective and longitudinal human studies. In contrast with the somewhat varied findings for stressors, women are consistently more likely than men to report experiencing emotional distress in the form of sadness or anxiety (e.g., Kendler et al., 2001). 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). For example, among those whose peers drank, men were more likely than women to report that they had increased their drinking in response.
With regard to exposure to social influences among problem drinkers, men generally have a higher proportion of friends who drink (Mohr et al., 2001), and women are more likely to be exposed to a heavy-drinking spouse (e.g., Miller and Cervantes, 1997; Mohr et al., 2001). In contrast, however, a comparison of the social networks of newly married couples found that heavy drinkers, regardless of gender, reported similar levels of drinking among their peers (Leonard et al., 2000). The findings are limited and inconsistent regarding possible gender differences in reactivity to the social influences of peers’ or partner’s drinking. Some have suggested that women’s drinking may be more “interdependent,” that is, more responsive than men’s to the needs and wishes of others (e.g., Leonard and Mudar, 2003). Consistent with this view, one study found that drinking norms were a stronger predictor of alcohol use for college women than men (Lewis and Neighbors, 2004). However, other research has found that social motives for drinking are more strongly endorsed by men than by women (Abbey et al., 1993) and that the predictive relationship between network drinking and alcohol consumption is similar for men and women (Bullers et al., 2001).
There aren’t enough studies on whether women drink more when they’re advertised lady-friendly booze, but underage drinking, which is better studied, does have a relationship to advertising. “Alcohol marketing plays a causal role in young people’s decisions to drink, and to drink more,” says David Jernigan, a health-policy professor at Boston University. Research has shown that certain genetic variations can increase an individual’s likelihood of turning to alcohol as a coping mechanism for stress. While these genetic factors can affect both men and women, some studies suggest that the impact may be more pronounced in men. Along with reporting frequency of everyday discrimination, participants completed clinical screenings for depression and anxiety.