The impact of gender-role identity, gender ideology and drinking motivation on binge drinking and behavioral outcomes

Graduation date: 1998The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a difference in students' drinking patterns and the resultant negative consequences based on gender role identity,\ud gender role ideology and self-reported drinking motivations on a college campus. A\ud questionnaire was administered to a sample of 735 university students. Gender identity,\ud gender role ideology and drinking motivations were measured using the following scales: 1) Drinking Motives Questionnaire (DMQ) (Cooper, 1994), 2) Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) (Bem, 1974), and 3) Sex Role Egalitarianism Scale, short version (SRES) (King, Beere, King & Beere, 1984). Results of this study indicated that the vast majority of students (93.2%) had consumed alcohol during the past 30 days and almost three-quarters (74.3%) of the\ud students responding to the survey were binge drinkers. Seventy-seven percentof males and 72. percent of females reported binge drinking. Support was found in this study for\ud the convergence model, as the distribution of binge drinkers and nonbinge drinkers was not significantly different between men and women. Gender identity and gender role ideology were analyzed to provide a possible explanation for lack of difference found\ud between males and females drinking patterns. Students with higher expressive traits were\ud less likely to binge drink and more likely to limit the number of drinks they consumed. Sex role egalitarianism appeared to have some influence on binge drinking behavior. Students with more traditional attitudes towards gender roles were more likely to be\ud binge drinkers. While gender ideology was able to predict the probability of being a\ud binge drinker, gender identity was not a significant predictor of binge drinking. As a result of drinking, a large number of students had experienced negative behavioral consequences within the last six months. Overall 45.4 percent of students experienced 1-4 negative consequences, while 38.6 percent reported 5-13 negative consequences during the previous 6 months. Students who were binge drinkers were almost 3 times as likely to have an alcohol related arrest as nonbingers, and two times as likely to have participated in unplanned or regretted sex. Considering all other independent variables (gender ideology and gender identity), drinking motives were the strongest predictors of student binge drinking and the negative consequences associated with that drinking