Gender Composition of Drinking Groups Impacts Young Adults' Alcohol Use on Weekend Evenings

Introduction:Young adults consume more alcohol when drinking with a higher number of friends. Only a few studies have investigated to what degree the gender composition of the group in which alcohol consumption occurs impacts young adults’ drinking behavior and the evidence obtained up to now is inconsistent. In this paper we investigate how gender composition of the drinking group affects young adults’ alcohol use on weekend evenings over and above the drinking group size based on hourly self-report data collected in the real environment.

 

Methods:Using the Internet-based cell phone-optimized assessment technique (ICAT), 183 young adults (53.0% female, mean age=23.1) in French-speaking Switzerland completed a series of cell phone questionnaires every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evening over five consecutive weekends. In total, 4,141 assessments were analyzed. Alcohol consumption and characteristics of the group (number of male and female friends present) were assessed at 8pm, 9pm, 10pm, 11pm, and midnight. Three-level negative binomial regressions (hourly assessments, evenings, individuals) were estimated for men and women separately.

 

Results:Men reported consuming more drinks per hour in mixed gender groups of equal gender composition (p<.05) or mixed gender groups with men in the majority (p<.05), and less consumption when drinking with women only groups (p<.001), compared to drinking with all male groups. Women consumed significantly more drinks per hour when drinking with mixed gender groups of various gender compositions (p<.01) and significantly fewer drinks when drinking with men only groups (p<.01), compared to drinking with all female drinking groups. Drinking groups size predicted the hourly number of drinks for men and women (both p<.001), as did Saturday (vs. Thursday) for men (p<.001).

 

Conclusions: Young adult men and women consume more alcohol on weekend evenings when drinking with mixed gender compared to same gender groups. Results suggest that the drinking group gender composition impacts young adult real-time alcohol use over and above drinking group size. Future research should investigate the behavioral processes in groups that are responsible for the impact of drinking group size and gender composition on drinking behavior.