Drinking with mixed-gender groups is associated with heavy weekend drinking among young adults

Abstract

Aims To investigate how gender composition of the drinking group affects young adults’ alcohol consumption on weekend evenings over and above the effect of drinking-group size. Design Using the Internet-based cell phone-optimized assessment technique (ICAT), participants completed online questionnaires on their cell phones every hour from 8 p.m. to midnight on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings over five consecutive weekends. Setting French-speaking Switzerland. Participants Convenience sample of 183 young adults (53.0% female, mean age=23.1) who completed a total of 4,141 hourly assessments. Measurements Alcohol consumption and number of male and female friends present assessed at 8 p.m., 9 p.m., 10 p.m., 11 p.m., and midnight. Findings Results of three-level negative binomial regression analyses showed that women consumed significantly more drinks per hour when drinking in mixed-gender groups (z-values ranging from 2.9 to 5.3, all p<.01) and significantly fewer drinks when drinking with men only (z=−2.7, p<.01), compared with drinking with women only. Men reported consuming more drinks per hour in mixed-gender groups of equal gender composition (z=2.4, p<.05) or mixed-gender groups with men in the majority (z=2.2, p<.05), and fewer hourly drinks when drinking with women only (z=−4.9, p<.001), compared with drinking with men only. Drinking-group size predicted the hourly number of drinks for women (z=6.0, p<.001) and men (z=5.5, p<.001). Conclusions Drinking-group gender composition is associated with number of drinks consumed per hour, over and above the impact of the drinking-group size. Young adults report consuming more drinks per hour when drinking with mixed-gender groups than with same-gender groups.

Real-time predictors of smoking among sexual minority and heterosexual young adults: An ecological momentary assessment study

“…In addition, participants were asked about the presence of other smokers (yes/no), their relationship to the people who were smoking (e.g., friend, family), and the number of other smokers around (0, 1, 2‒4, 5‒20, and more than 20). To approximate a continuous number of other smokers for analysis, midpoints of categories were used; 23.5 was used for the highest category, as suggested by previous EMA studies (Thrul and Kuntsche, 2015; Thrul et al, 2017). …”

Similarities and Differences Matter: Considering the Influence of Gender on HIV Prevention Programs for Young Adults in an Urban HBCU

“…While contrary to most research indicating that more men consume alcohol than women, recent studies have shown that in young adults, more women tend to drink and consume higher volumes of alcohol when drinking in mixed gender settings, which is typical in college settings [25,26]. Interventions on alcoholic beverage drinking in colleges and universities may need to address the high proportion of female alcohol drinkers.…”

Adolescent recanting of alcohol use: A longitudinal investigation of time-varying intra-individual predictors

“…Furthermore, it is unlikely that biological sex directly causes differential rates of recanting. Instead, sex differences in recanting may arise in response to other unexamined proximal factors such as peer group gender composition (Thrul et al, 2017) and gender-specific peer influence on drinking (Gaughan, 2006) that may drive observed sex differences. Investigating potential mechanisms for underlying sex differences is an important direction for future research.…”