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Abstract
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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.
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Language: en |