63
Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 29 (1991) 63 - 68 Elsevier Scientific Publishers Ireland Ltd.
Sex differences in the interaction of drinking, positive expectancies and symptoms of dependence in young adults Robert J. Williams and Richard K. Wortley School
Current
ofSocial Science,
levels of self-reported
drinking
Charles Sturt University,
(Mitchell).
(Received
March
ZOth, 1991)
adults
predicted
amongst
young
Bathurst.
scores
NSW 2795 (Australia)
on measures
of both positive
expectancies
for alcohol use and negative alcohol effects (symptoms of dependence). No overall sex difference was shown in the main effects, but there was a significant interaction effect between sex and alcohol consumption on the dependency and expectancy scales. The form of this interaction was different for expectancy and dependency scores. There was a cross-over effect in the case of expectancy: light drinking females revealed lower levels of expectancy than did light drinking males whereas heavier drinking females reported higher levels of expectancy than did maies at a comparable level of consumption. There was a higher proportion of heavy female drinkers in this sample than is usually reported. With regard to dependence, the trend in sex differences was divergent: whereas males acknowledged increases in symptoms concomitant with increases in consumption, comparable female drinkers reported relatively little increase in such symptoms. Results were discussed in terms of quantity-related concepts of ‘utility’ of alcohol use and a ‘diminished personal harm’ rationalization associated with the negative effects of alcohol. Key words: drinking:
self-reporting:
expectancies;
sex differences;
Introduction ‘Normal’ appetitive behaviour can be conceptualised empirically as the product of an interaction between opposing variables associated with inclination and restraint (Zinberg and Harding, 1982; Orford, 1985). Bauman and Bryan (1980), Bauman et al. (1985) and Critchelow (1987) have developed an analysis of drinking based on Edward’s (1954) concept of ‘utility’ in relation to the psychology of individual differences. The utility theory states that the likelihood that an individual will perform a behaviour is a function of the extent to which its pleasant consequences outweigh unpleasant consequences. The utility of any behaviour is a function of two characteristics - the perceived probability of occurrence Cor%ponc;lenceto:
Robert J. Williams, School Science, Charles Sturt University, (Mitchell), NSW 2795. Australia.
Printed
and Published
in Ireland
of Social Bathurst,
young
adults:
Australia
and the desirability - of each of these consequences. The utility of drinking ‘pay offs’ can be expected to vary with individual differences in attribution etc. Increasing one’s consumption as a means of increasing the probability of positive consequences associated with alcohol is a strategy that must incorporate simultaneous enhancement of the probability of negative consequences and drinkers must hold positive and negative attitudes towards drinking in mind simultaneously (see Critchelow, 1986, for a review), As their consumption of alcohol increases the majority of drinkers report greater expectancies for both positive and negative effects, but heavier drinkers rate their personal likelihood of experiencing positive effects higher and of experiencing negative effects lower than do light drinkers. Likewise, though recognition of negative effects generally increases with increased consumption, attitudes regarding the
64
severity of associated harmful consequences also shift towards the more benign - relative to one’s own drinking as distinct from the drinking of others (McCarty, et al., 1983; Roizen, 1983; Rosenhow, 1983; Critchelow, 1986). Thus the ‘rational’ increase in acknowledgement of negative consequences becomes a rationalisation. Perceptions of negative possibilities are overlaid by inflation of competing positive expectancies and are also displaced in terms of diminished personal harm. Clearly the study of cognitive variables is crucial to our understanding of the developmental, psychosocial processes involved in learning to drink, and in the development of ‘at risk’ consumption in particular. The mediating influence of outcome expectancies has received particular attention recently (Brown et al., 1980; Marlatt and Rosenhow, 1980; Southwick et al, 1981; Brown et al., 1987). Sex differences however have not been fully explored (Critchelow, 1986) and Mooney et al. (1987) have reported that variables such as sex, age, quantity and frequency of drinking can relate differentially to expectancies. The usual imbalance in numbers of lighter vs. heavier, female vs. male drinkers creates a bias in the study of sex differences and drinking. General surveys of student drinking in Australia (e.g., Wilks, 1986) report comparatively few heavy drinking females. The present study takes advantage of a particular environment in which it is expected that a greater proportion of the females would be relatively heavier drinkers. The relationship between positive expectancies for outcome combined with the negative side-effects of drinking as measured by symptoms of alcohol dependence was examined in a college sample of young adult, Australian drinkers. Method
Subjects Two hundred and four first year students were surveyed on a wide range of issues. Only the expectancy and dependence rate are relevant here. Six subjects refused to complete
these particular questionnaires on the grounds that they never drank alcohol. Responses from a total of 198 subjects (57 males and 141 females) were analysed. There were no significant differences in terms of religious affiliation, marital status or educational background between males and females. Males tended to be older than females (mean age females = 21.1; mean age males = 25.2). Caveat This sample is atypical in its proportion of heavier drinking females. We consider the major reason for this to be contextuallenvironmental. The college is predominantly residential and first year students are expected to live on campus. The major evening social life at the college is without doubt organised around the student bar which includes take-away food facilities etc. Of the four or five nights that students are usually in residence two of these (bar/party night and band/dance night during which musicians are brought to the college) are clearly recognised as occasions for social drinking. The bar complex has an annual turnover of over $300 000. The college is situated in a small town (pop. 26 000) 200 km from a major city - the usual domicile of the majority of the students. Most students travel home (transport concessions are available) for the weekends to partake of their ‘normal’ social life. It seems to the authors therefore, that week-night drinking at the college occurs in addition to the more expected weekend social drinking. Measures
and Procedures
Positive effects attributed to moderate alcohol consumption were assessed using the shortened form of the Alcohol Expectancy Questionnaire (AEQ) developed by Brown et al. (1980, 1987). The scale consists of 66 items in an agree/ disagree format. Negative effects of drinking were measured using the Alcohol Dependence Scale (ADS) (Skinner and Allen, 1982). Two measures of current drinking behaviour were originally obtained: (1) how many drinks per session the subject has been typically drink-
65
Table I. Breakdown
of current Drinks
drinking
behaviour
by sex and age.
per session
9
Mean age Female (Yo)
23.7 36.2
22.2 31.9
20.5 18.4
20.4 11.3
P I.9 2.2
Male (‘T/O)
19.2
28.1
19.3
12.3
?I.
ing during the past month; and (2) how many times during that period the subject had drunk more than five drinks on a drinking occasion. These questions were taken from the N.S.W. School Survey (Home1 et al. 1984) Both measures produced similar findings and only results involving quantity per session are reported here. Results
A breakdown of current drinking behaviour by age and sex of the subjects using MANOVA revealed that youth and being male was related to heavier drinking patterns. (For age, F(1,194) = 6.27, P < 0.01; for sex, F(1,194) = 28.72, P < 0.01). There was no interaction effect. Rele-
Table
II. Significant
univariate
1
vant means and percentages are summarized in Table I. MANOVA was then performed with the expectancy and dependency sub-scales as the dependent set, and subjects’ sex, age and alcohol consumption as independent variables. There were multivariate effects for ‘drinks per session’ (F = 11.94, P < O.Ol), and the ‘drinks per session’ by sex interaction (J’ = 2.01, P < 0.05). No other effects were significant. The contributions of the individual subscale scores to these effects are shown in Table II. For the main effect, inspection of the means reveals that overall, high expectancies and dependencies are related to heavier current drinking behaviours. The ‘drinks per session’ and sex interaction, however, is more complex.
6’.values
-_ Sub-scalt,
No. drinks
I)rinks
x Sex .___
F
Sig.:’
Global
22.9
0.000
Sexual Assertion Pleasure Relaxation
Y.6 20.2 28.0 14.9
0.002 0.000 0.000 0.000
Loss of control Obsessive style
91.2 36.1
0.000 0.000
Perceptual withdrawal Physical withdrawal
64.8 43.5
0.000
h
Sig. i’
H.ti 1.7
0.004 O.O’%‘, ._
5.x
0.01
Expectancy
Dependenq
7
0.000 ..___.
“d.f.
= (1,184)
66
analysis, and which are illustrative trends.
--‘;-
of the overall
Discussion
,_.’
,.c
,,’ ,:’ ,,1’
i‘
0’
Q
DRINKS PER SESSION
Fig. 1.
The relationship between consumption and dependency increases more steeply for males than females. That is, the more males drink the more dependency symptoms they report, and while this is also true of females, their rate of increase is less. The trend is reversed, however, for expectancies: female light drinkers have lower expectancy scores than male light drinkers, but female heavy drinkers actually overtake their male counterparts in their expectancies of the positive effect of alcohol. Figure 1 shows this interaction effect for the three subscales which were significant in the univariate
As expected, being young- and being male were most clearly related to heaviest consumption. In addition, as self-reported current alcohol consumption increased so did both expectancies for positive effects from drinking and perceived aversive consequences (symptoms of dependence). There was no overall difference on dependencies and expectancies as a function of sex but there was a significant interaction between sex and alcohol consumption. Examination of the sub-scale scores shows that ‘enhanced social assertion’ and ‘enhanced social and physical pleasure’ among the expectancy scores and ‘psychoperceptual withdrawal’ amongst symptoms of dependence contribute most to the overall significance. Regarding the ‘increased pleasure’ and the ‘increased assertiveness’ expectancy scales the present results are in terms of quantity consumed per usual drinking session replicate those of Mooney et al. (1987; see also Mooney and Corcoran, 1989); on this measure males and females share a similar expectancy of utility of alcohol. To understand why heavier drinking females perceive less negatives and more positives than their male counterparts we need to consider the perceived utility of drinking (Bauman et al., 1985; Critchelow, 1987) and what Brennan et al. (1986) have called the ‘social press’ of the drinking ethic in young adult life and the fact that drinking at this time is a predominantly peercentred activity (O’Connor, 1978: Fillmore, 1988; Forney et al., 1989). The perceived utility of drinking can be increased in a number of ways, the most obvious being the mechanism of selective attention - to perceive enhancement of the probability of personal positive consequences coupled with perceived decrease in the probability of negative consequences. But why does the diminished personal harm rationalisation need to be more powerful in the case of females - given that they are choosing to drink more heavily? Drinking contexts cer-
67
tainly impose different constraints on males and females (Levine, 1980; Aitken, 1985; Bush, 1990). Though the relationships between cognitions and behaviour are undoubtedly complex (e.g. Steele and Southwick, 1985; Hull and Bond, 1986), a number of studies have shown significant cognitive differences in the way females conceptualise drinking (Dorn, 1983; Frieze and Schafer, 1984; Ratliff and Burkhart, 1984; Berowitz and Perkins, 1985). This difference is particularly relevant in the case of self-image and social-image (Hull et al., 1983; Chassin et al., 1985) and is a likely reflection of broader cultural gender differentiation (Smith, 1985). Acculturation is clearly involved because learning about the positive expectations of alcohol effects upon social behaviour often predates actual experience of drinking amongst adolescents. (Christiansen et al., 1982; Weiss cited in Brown et al., 1987). Females are expected to show greater control and moderation in regard to appetitive behaviours in general (see Orford, p. 125, 1985). It seems that this restraint flows through to reporting of negative effects of drinking, i.e. physical side effects of drinking so that they might well be underreported. Talking about the wear and tear of drinking from personal experiment with excess consumption seems more the male prerogative (as a part of initiation into the drinking group). The present results indicate that the rationalisation involving increased positive expectancies and diminished personal harm amongst heavier drinking young female adults is a cause for particular concern. This has implications for programmes that attempt to create an atmosphere supportive of ‘sensible’ drinking on campuses and amongst young adults generally (Apsler, 1982; Kraft, 1982). When questions of self and social identity are discussed greater weight will need to be given to fundamental issues of gender expectancies and constraints.
of substances they use. In: Control over Intoxicant IJsr (Zinberg, N.E. and Harding, W.M., eds.), pp. 37-5 1. Human Science Press, New York. Bauman, K.E. and Bryan, ES. (1980) Subjective expected utility and children’s drinking. ,J. Stud. Alcohol 41, 952-958. Bauman, H.E., Fisher, L.A., Bryan, E.S. and Chenowrth, R.L. (1985) Relationship between subjective expected utility and behaviour: a longitudinal study of adolescent drinking behaviour. J. Stud. Alcohol 46, 32-38. Berkowitz. A.D. and Perkins, H.W. (1985) General differences in collegiate drinking: Longitudinal trends and developmental patterns. Paper presented at the American College Personnel Association Conference. Brennan. A.F., Walfish, S. and Buchon. P. (1986) Alcohol use and abuse in college students; A review of individual and personality correlates. Int. J. Addict. 21, 449-474. Brown, S.A., Goldman, M.S., Innes, A. and Anderson, LA. (1980) Expectations for reinforcement from alcohol. Their domain and relations to drinking patterns. .I. Consult. Clin. Psychol. 48, 419-426. Brown, S.A., Christiansen, B.A. and Goldman. M.S. (1987) The alcohol expectancy questionnaire: an instrument for the assessment of adolescent and adult alcohol expectancies. J. Stud. Alcohol 48, 483-491. Bush, R. (1990). The social contexts of young men’s and women’s drinking: a psychosocial developmental perspective. In: Adolescence. Australian Perspectives (Heaven, P. and Callans, V.J., eds.). Harcourt, Bruce, Jovanovich, Sydney (in press). Chassin, L.. Tetzloff, C. and Hershey, M. (1985) Self-image and social image factors in adolescent alcohol use. .J. Stud. Alcohol 46, 39-47. Christiansen, B.A., Golman, M.S. and Inn, A. (I!+%!) expectancies Development of alcohol related in adolescents: separating pharmacological from social learning influences. J. Consult. Clin. Psychol. SO. 336X(44. Critchelow, B. (1986)The powers of .John Barleycorn: beliefs about the effects of alcohol on social behaviour. Am. Psychol. 41, 751-764. Critchelow, B. (1987) A utility analysis of drinkmg. Addict. Behav. 12, 269-273. Dorn, N. (1983) Alcohol, Youth, and the State; Drinking Practises, Controls and Health Education. Groom Helm, London. Fillmore, K.M. (1988) Alcohol use across life course: A critical review of 70 years of international longitudinal research. Toronto: Addiction Research Foundation. Frieze,
References kitken, P.P. (1985) An observational - II. Drink drinking groups
group pressures and alcohol consumption by companions as predictors of alcohol consumption. Alcohol Alcoholism 20, 445-457. Apsler, R. (1982) Measuring how people control the amounts
study of young adults’ purchasing procedures,
I.H. and Schafer,
P.C. (1984) Alcohol use and marital
violence: female and male differences in reactions to alcohol. In: Alcohol Problems in Women (Wilsnack, S. and Beckman, L. eds.), pp. 260-279. Guilford. New York. Forney, M.A., Forney, P.D. and Ripley, W.K. (19189) Pwdic-
68
tor variables of adolescent drinking. Adv. Alcohol Substance Abuse 8(2), 97-113. Homel, P., Flaherty, B., Trebilco, B. and Dunoon, D. (1984) 1983 Survey of Drug use by students in N.S.W. Sydney. Drug Alcohol Authority, A 84/5). Hull, J.G. and Bond, C.F. (1986) Social and behavioral consequences of alcohol consumption and expectancy: a meta analysis. Psychol. Bull., 99, 347-360. Hull, J.G., Levenson, R.W., Young, R.D. and Sher, K.J. (1983). Self-awareness reducing effects of alcohol consumption. J. Pers. Sot. Psychol. 44, 461-473. Kraft, D.P. (1982) Public drinking practises of college youths: Implications for prevention programmes. In: Social Drinking Contexts (Harford, T.C. and Gaines, L.S., eds), (DHHS Publication No, ADM 81-1007. pp. 54-58. US Government Printing Office, Washington, DC. Levine, H.G. (1980) Temperance and women in 19th century United States. In: Research Advances in Alcohol and Drug Problems (Kalant, O.J., ed.), Vol. 5. Plenum, New York. Marlatt, G.A. and Rosenhow, D. (1980) Cognitive processes in alcohol use; Expectancy in the balanced placebo design. In: Advances in Substance Abuse: Behavioral and Biological Research, (Mello, N.K., ed.). JAI Press, Greenwich CT. Mooney, D.K. and Corcoran, K.J. (1989) The relationship between assertiveness, alcohol related expectations for social asserting and drinking patterns among college students. Addict. Behav. 14, 301-305.
Mooney, D.K., Fromme, K., Kivlahan, D.R. and Marlatt (1987) Correlates of alcohol consumption: sex, age, and expectancies relate differentially to quantity and frequency. Addict. Behav. 12, 235-240. O’Connor, J. (1978) The young drinkers: a cross-national study of social and cultural influences. Tavistock Publications, London. Orford, J. (1985) Excessive Appetites: A Psychological View of Addictions. John Wiley, Chichester. Rosenhow, D. (1983) Drinking habits and expectancies about alcohol’s effects for self versus others. J. Consult. Clin. Psychol. 51, 752-756. Ratliff, K.G. and Burkhart, B.R. (1984) Sex differences in the motivation for and effects of drinking among college students. J. Stud. Alcohol. 45, 26-32. Skinner, H.A. and Allen, B.A. (1982) Alcohol dependence syndrome: measurement and validation. J. Abnorm. Psychoi. 91, 199-209. Smith, P.M. (1985) Language, the Sexes and Society. Basil Blackwell, London. Steele, CM. and Southwick, L. (1985) Alcohol and social behaviour: the psychology of drunken excess. J. Pers. Sot. Psychol., 48, 18-34. Wilks, J. (1986) Student drinking patterns. Aust. Drug Alcohol Rev. 5, 3-7. Zinberg, N.E. and Harding, W.M. (1982) Control over Intoxicant Use. Human Sciences Press, New York.
Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 29 (1991) 63 - 68 Elsevier Scientific Publishers Ireland Ltd.
Sex differences in the interaction of drinking, positive expectancies and symptoms of dependence in young adults Robert J. Williams and Richard K. Wortley School
Current
ofSocial Science,
levels of self-reported
drinking
Charles Sturt University,
(Mitchell).
(Received
March
ZOth, 1991)
adults
predicted
amongst
young
Bathurst.
scores
NSW 2795 (Australia)
on measures
of both positive
expectancies
for alcohol use and negative alcohol effects (symptoms of dependence). No overall sex difference was shown in the main effects, but there was a significant interaction effect between sex and alcohol consumption on the dependency and expectancy scales. The form of this interaction was different for expectancy and dependency scores. There was a cross-over effect in the case of expectancy: light drinking females revealed lower levels of expectancy than did light drinking males whereas heavier drinking females reported higher levels of expectancy than did maies at a comparable level of consumption. There was a higher proportion of heavy female drinkers in this sample than is usually reported. With regard to dependence, the trend in sex differences was divergent: whereas males acknowledged increases in symptoms concomitant with increases in consumption, comparable female drinkers reported relatively little increase in such symptoms. Results were discussed in terms of quantity-related concepts of ‘utility’ of alcohol use and a ‘diminished personal harm’ rationalization associated with the negative effects of alcohol. Key words: drinking:
self-reporting:
expectancies;
sex differences;
Introduction ‘Normal’ appetitive behaviour can be conceptualised empirically as the product of an interaction between opposing variables associated with inclination and restraint (Zinberg and Harding, 1982; Orford, 1985). Bauman and Bryan (1980), Bauman et al. (1985) and Critchelow (1987) have developed an analysis of drinking based on Edward’s (1954) concept of ‘utility’ in relation to the psychology of individual differences. The utility theory states that the likelihood that an individual will perform a behaviour is a function of the extent to which its pleasant consequences outweigh unpleasant consequences. The utility of any behaviour is a function of two characteristics - the perceived probability of occurrence Cor%ponc;lenceto:
Robert J. Williams, School Science, Charles Sturt University, (Mitchell), NSW 2795. Australia.
Printed
and Published
in Ireland
of Social Bathurst,
young
adults:
Australia
and the desirability - of each of these consequences. The utility of drinking ‘pay offs’ can be expected to vary with individual differences in attribution etc. Increasing one’s consumption as a means of increasing the probability of positive consequences associated with alcohol is a strategy that must incorporate simultaneous enhancement of the probability of negative consequences and drinkers must hold positive and negative attitudes towards drinking in mind simultaneously (see Critchelow, 1986, for a review), As their consumption of alcohol increases the majority of drinkers report greater expectancies for both positive and negative effects, but heavier drinkers rate their personal likelihood of experiencing positive effects higher and of experiencing negative effects lower than do light drinkers. Likewise, though recognition of negative effects generally increases with increased consumption, attitudes regarding the
64
severity of associated harmful consequences also shift towards the more benign - relative to one’s own drinking as distinct from the drinking of others (McCarty, et al., 1983; Roizen, 1983; Rosenhow, 1983; Critchelow, 1986). Thus the ‘rational’ increase in acknowledgement of negative consequences becomes a rationalisation. Perceptions of negative possibilities are overlaid by inflation of competing positive expectancies and are also displaced in terms of diminished personal harm. Clearly the study of cognitive variables is crucial to our understanding of the developmental, psychosocial processes involved in learning to drink, and in the development of ‘at risk’ consumption in particular. The mediating influence of outcome expectancies has received particular attention recently (Brown et al., 1980; Marlatt and Rosenhow, 1980; Southwick et al, 1981; Brown et al., 1987). Sex differences however have not been fully explored (Critchelow, 1986) and Mooney et al. (1987) have reported that variables such as sex, age, quantity and frequency of drinking can relate differentially to expectancies. The usual imbalance in numbers of lighter vs. heavier, female vs. male drinkers creates a bias in the study of sex differences and drinking. General surveys of student drinking in Australia (e.g., Wilks, 1986) report comparatively few heavy drinking females. The present study takes advantage of a particular environment in which it is expected that a greater proportion of the females would be relatively heavier drinkers. The relationship between positive expectancies for outcome combined with the negative side-effects of drinking as measured by symptoms of alcohol dependence was examined in a college sample of young adult, Australian drinkers. Method
Subjects Two hundred and four first year students were surveyed on a wide range of issues. Only the expectancy and dependence rate are relevant here. Six subjects refused to complete
these particular questionnaires on the grounds that they never drank alcohol. Responses from a total of 198 subjects (57 males and 141 females) were analysed. There were no significant differences in terms of religious affiliation, marital status or educational background between males and females. Males tended to be older than females (mean age females = 21.1; mean age males = 25.2). Caveat This sample is atypical in its proportion of heavier drinking females. We consider the major reason for this to be contextuallenvironmental. The college is predominantly residential and first year students are expected to live on campus. The major evening social life at the college is without doubt organised around the student bar which includes take-away food facilities etc. Of the four or five nights that students are usually in residence two of these (bar/party night and band/dance night during which musicians are brought to the college) are clearly recognised as occasions for social drinking. The bar complex has an annual turnover of over $300 000. The college is situated in a small town (pop. 26 000) 200 km from a major city - the usual domicile of the majority of the students. Most students travel home (transport concessions are available) for the weekends to partake of their ‘normal’ social life. It seems to the authors therefore, that week-night drinking at the college occurs in addition to the more expected weekend social drinking. Measures
and Procedures
Positive effects attributed to moderate alcohol consumption were assessed using the shortened form of the Alcohol Expectancy Questionnaire (AEQ) developed by Brown et al. (1980, 1987). The scale consists of 66 items in an agree/ disagree format. Negative effects of drinking were measured using the Alcohol Dependence Scale (ADS) (Skinner and Allen, 1982). Two measures of current drinking behaviour were originally obtained: (1) how many drinks per session the subject has been typically drink-
65
Table I. Breakdown
of current Drinks
drinking
behaviour
by sex and age.
per session
9
Mean age Female (Yo)
23.7 36.2
22.2 31.9
20.5 18.4
20.4 11.3
P I.9 2.2
Male (‘T/O)
19.2
28.1
19.3
12.3
?I.
ing during the past month; and (2) how many times during that period the subject had drunk more than five drinks on a drinking occasion. These questions were taken from the N.S.W. School Survey (Home1 et al. 1984) Both measures produced similar findings and only results involving quantity per session are reported here. Results
A breakdown of current drinking behaviour by age and sex of the subjects using MANOVA revealed that youth and being male was related to heavier drinking patterns. (For age, F(1,194) = 6.27, P < 0.01; for sex, F(1,194) = 28.72, P < 0.01). There was no interaction effect. Rele-
Table
II. Significant
univariate
1
vant means and percentages are summarized in Table I. MANOVA was then performed with the expectancy and dependency sub-scales as the dependent set, and subjects’ sex, age and alcohol consumption as independent variables. There were multivariate effects for ‘drinks per session’ (F = 11.94, P < O.Ol), and the ‘drinks per session’ by sex interaction (J’ = 2.01, P < 0.05). No other effects were significant. The contributions of the individual subscale scores to these effects are shown in Table II. For the main effect, inspection of the means reveals that overall, high expectancies and dependencies are related to heavier current drinking behaviours. The ‘drinks per session’ and sex interaction, however, is more complex.
6’.values
-_ Sub-scalt,
No. drinks
I)rinks
x Sex .___
F
Sig.:’
Global
22.9
0.000
Sexual Assertion Pleasure Relaxation
Y.6 20.2 28.0 14.9
0.002 0.000 0.000 0.000
Loss of control Obsessive style
91.2 36.1
0.000 0.000
Perceptual withdrawal Physical withdrawal
64.8 43.5
0.000
h
Sig. i’
H.ti 1.7
0.004 O.O’%‘, ._
5.x
0.01
Expectancy
Dependenq
7
0.000 ..___.
“d.f.
= (1,184)
66
analysis, and which are illustrative trends.
--‘;-
of the overall
Discussion
,_.’
,.c
,,’ ,:’ ,,1’
i‘
0’
Q
DRINKS PER SESSION
Fig. 1.
The relationship between consumption and dependency increases more steeply for males than females. That is, the more males drink the more dependency symptoms they report, and while this is also true of females, their rate of increase is less. The trend is reversed, however, for expectancies: female light drinkers have lower expectancy scores than male light drinkers, but female heavy drinkers actually overtake their male counterparts in their expectancies of the positive effect of alcohol. Figure 1 shows this interaction effect for the three subscales which were significant in the univariate
As expected, being young- and being male were most clearly related to heaviest consumption. In addition, as self-reported current alcohol consumption increased so did both expectancies for positive effects from drinking and perceived aversive consequences (symptoms of dependence). There was no overall difference on dependencies and expectancies as a function of sex but there was a significant interaction between sex and alcohol consumption. Examination of the sub-scale scores shows that ‘enhanced social assertion’ and ‘enhanced social and physical pleasure’ among the expectancy scores and ‘psychoperceptual withdrawal’ amongst symptoms of dependence contribute most to the overall significance. Regarding the ‘increased pleasure’ and the ‘increased assertiveness’ expectancy scales the present results are in terms of quantity consumed per usual drinking session replicate those of Mooney et al. (1987; see also Mooney and Corcoran, 1989); on this measure males and females share a similar expectancy of utility of alcohol. To understand why heavier drinking females perceive less negatives and more positives than their male counterparts we need to consider the perceived utility of drinking (Bauman et al., 1985; Critchelow, 1987) and what Brennan et al. (1986) have called the ‘social press’ of the drinking ethic in young adult life and the fact that drinking at this time is a predominantly peercentred activity (O’Connor, 1978: Fillmore, 1988; Forney et al., 1989). The perceived utility of drinking can be increased in a number of ways, the most obvious being the mechanism of selective attention - to perceive enhancement of the probability of personal positive consequences coupled with perceived decrease in the probability of negative consequences. But why does the diminished personal harm rationalisation need to be more powerful in the case of females - given that they are choosing to drink more heavily? Drinking contexts cer-
67
tainly impose different constraints on males and females (Levine, 1980; Aitken, 1985; Bush, 1990). Though the relationships between cognitions and behaviour are undoubtedly complex (e.g. Steele and Southwick, 1985; Hull and Bond, 1986), a number of studies have shown significant cognitive differences in the way females conceptualise drinking (Dorn, 1983; Frieze and Schafer, 1984; Ratliff and Burkhart, 1984; Berowitz and Perkins, 1985). This difference is particularly relevant in the case of self-image and social-image (Hull et al., 1983; Chassin et al., 1985) and is a likely reflection of broader cultural gender differentiation (Smith, 1985). Acculturation is clearly involved because learning about the positive expectations of alcohol effects upon social behaviour often predates actual experience of drinking amongst adolescents. (Christiansen et al., 1982; Weiss cited in Brown et al., 1987). Females are expected to show greater control and moderation in regard to appetitive behaviours in general (see Orford, p. 125, 1985). It seems that this restraint flows through to reporting of negative effects of drinking, i.e. physical side effects of drinking so that they might well be underreported. Talking about the wear and tear of drinking from personal experiment with excess consumption seems more the male prerogative (as a part of initiation into the drinking group). The present results indicate that the rationalisation involving increased positive expectancies and diminished personal harm amongst heavier drinking young female adults is a cause for particular concern. This has implications for programmes that attempt to create an atmosphere supportive of ‘sensible’ drinking on campuses and amongst young adults generally (Apsler, 1982; Kraft, 1982). When questions of self and social identity are discussed greater weight will need to be given to fundamental issues of gender expectancies and constraints.
of substances they use. In: Control over Intoxicant IJsr (Zinberg, N.E. and Harding, W.M., eds.), pp. 37-5 1. Human Science Press, New York. Bauman, K.E. and Bryan, ES. (1980) Subjective expected utility and children’s drinking. ,J. Stud. Alcohol 41, 952-958. Bauman, H.E., Fisher, L.A., Bryan, E.S. and Chenowrth, R.L. (1985) Relationship between subjective expected utility and behaviour: a longitudinal study of adolescent drinking behaviour. J. Stud. Alcohol 46, 32-38. Berkowitz. A.D. and Perkins, H.W. (1985) General differences in collegiate drinking: Longitudinal trends and developmental patterns. Paper presented at the American College Personnel Association Conference. Brennan. A.F., Walfish, S. and Buchon. P. (1986) Alcohol use and abuse in college students; A review of individual and personality correlates. Int. J. Addict. 21, 449-474. Brown, S.A., Goldman, M.S., Innes, A. and Anderson, LA. (1980) Expectations for reinforcement from alcohol. Their domain and relations to drinking patterns. .I. Consult. Clin. Psychol. 48, 419-426. Brown, S.A., Christiansen, B.A. and Goldman. M.S. (1987) The alcohol expectancy questionnaire: an instrument for the assessment of adolescent and adult alcohol expectancies. J. Stud. Alcohol 48, 483-491. Bush, R. (1990). The social contexts of young men’s and women’s drinking: a psychosocial developmental perspective. In: Adolescence. Australian Perspectives (Heaven, P. and Callans, V.J., eds.). Harcourt, Bruce, Jovanovich, Sydney (in press). Chassin, L.. Tetzloff, C. and Hershey, M. (1985) Self-image and social image factors in adolescent alcohol use. .J. Stud. Alcohol 46, 39-47. Christiansen, B.A., Golman, M.S. and Inn, A. (I!+%!) expectancies Development of alcohol related in adolescents: separating pharmacological from social learning influences. J. Consult. Clin. Psychol. SO. 336X(44. Critchelow, B. (1986)The powers of .John Barleycorn: beliefs about the effects of alcohol on social behaviour. Am. Psychol. 41, 751-764. Critchelow, B. (1987) A utility analysis of drinkmg. Addict. Behav. 12, 269-273. Dorn, N. (1983) Alcohol, Youth, and the State; Drinking Practises, Controls and Health Education. Groom Helm, London. Fillmore, K.M. (1988) Alcohol use across life course: A critical review of 70 years of international longitudinal research. Toronto: Addiction Research Foundation. Frieze,
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