Abstract: Background: Much of the research on suicidality has focused on adolescents and completed suicides, with less attention to types of suicidal behavior (ideation and attempts) that are more common among women. Research has associated women's suicidality with hazardous drinking, adverse childhood experiences, relationship problems, depression, and earlier suicidal behavior. The longitudinal analyses here examine long-term antecedents of suicidal ideation among women in the U.S. general population. Methods: We used 1981 and 1991 survey data to predict post-1991 suicidal ideation in a 1996 national sample of 709 women aged 26 to 54 (538 current drinkers). Predictors included 1991 measures of hazardous drinking, depressive episodes, illicit drug use, general health, children at home, interaction with partner, and previous suicidal ideation. Predictors from childhood included recalled parental drinking, parental love or rejection, early drinking and sexual intercourse, and sexual abuse. Demographic predictors included age, education, and ethnicity. A three-stage structural equation model that included these variables was evaluated with Mplus for women who were drinkers in 1991 and/or 1996. Results: Almost all women who attempted suicide also reported suicidal ideation. Among women drinkers, suicidal ideation before 1991 was more common in the following groups: Latinas, women who believed that their parents had rejected them, and women who reported childhood sexual abuse. Hazardous drinking and poorer health in 1991, childhood histories of sexual abuse and early drinking, and previous suicidal ideation predicted suicidal ideation after 1991. Domestic stressors in 1991 (inability to share feelings with a partner and having four or more young children at home) also predicted subsequent suicidal ideation, but depressive episodes did not. Suicidal ideation was less likely among women drinkers who reported past illicit drug use. Conclusions: Suicidal ideation among women drinkers was largely predictable from previous suicidal ideation, hazardous drinking, adverse childhood experiences, and domestic stressors. Higher rates of pre-1991 suicidal ideation among Latinas indicate a need for further study of ethnic influences on suicidality. Reduced suicidal ideation among women with past illicit drug use suggests that conclusions about such use from shorter-term studies may be oversimplified. Understanding women's suicidal ideation, as a precursor to suicidal actions, requires more detailed research on pathways by which hazardous drinking as well as combined distress from childhood experiences and adult domestic environments may increase women's despair and thoughts of suicide.
BACKGROUND. Longitudinal studies of adult drinking have typically excluded or sampled only small numbers of problem drinking women, and have measured a limited range of influences on women's drinking behavior. METHODS. To study the development of women's problem drinking over time, five-year follow-up interviews were conducted with two groups of respondents from a 1981 national survey of women's drinking: 143 problem drinkers and 157 nonproblem drinkers. Regression analyses examined effects of 1981 predictors on six measures of 1986 problem drinking, for problem drinkers and nonproblem drinkers separately. RESULTS. Among 1981 nonproblem drinkers, predictors of onset of problem drinking indicators by 1986 included younger age, cohabiting, and lifetime use of drugs other than alcohol. The most consistent predictor of persistent (chronic) problem drinking was sexual dysfunction; other predictor included being employed part-time or never married, and experiencing recent depression. Divorce or separation predicted lower levels of subsequent alcohol dependance among problem drinkers. CONCLUSIONS. Findings suggest that different personal and social factors predict the onset of problem drinking as compared with its continuation, and point to nontraditional life-style, sexual dysfunction, and role deprivation as potentially important variables.
Abstract This chapter discusses the influence of gender on alcohol consumption and its effects. Men continue to consume more alcohol than women, and as a result suffer more adverse effects. This gender difference is smaller for rates of drinking versus abstaining from alcohol, and greater for the heaviest and most problematic drinking patterns. At any given level of consumption, however, women who drink are at greater risk of problems, particularly from health effects. Furthermore, gender differences in consumption and problems are growing smaller in a number of countries. Nevertheless, the multiple possible causes for such gender differences mean that the gender gap is likely to persist to some degree for a long while yet.
Aims: To examine the consistency and/or variability of gender differences in drinking behavior crossculturally. Design, setting, participants: Women's and men's responses in 16 general population surveys from 10 countries, analyzed by members of the International Research Group on Gender and Alcohol. Measurements: Comparable measures of drinking, versus abstention, typical drinking frequencies and quantities, heavy episodic drinking, intoxication, morning drinking, and alcohol‐related family and occupational problems. Findings: Women and men differed little in the probability of currently drinking versus abstaining, but men consistently exceeded women in typical drinking frequencies and quantities and in rates of heavy drinking episodes and adverse drinking consequences, while women were consistently more likely than men to be life‐time abstainers. In older age groups, both men and women drank smaller quantities of alcohol and were more likely to stop drinking altogether, but drinking frequencies did not change consistently with age. Conclusions: A theoretical synthesis proposes that gender roles may amplify biological differences in reactions to alcohol, and that gender differences in drinking behavior may be modified by macrosocial factors that modify gender role contrasts.
Background: Alcohol consumption in Russia is reportedly high for both men and women; most studies of Russian drinking have used questionnaires not designed specifically to measure alcohol consumption or to interview women. This study was designed specifically to measure drinking patterns among pregnant and nonpregnant Russian women. Methods: Eight hundred ninety‐nine women of child‐bearing age in St. Petersburg, Russia, were interviewed in employment centers, educational centers, and at obstetric and gynecologic (OB/GYN) clinics and hospitals. Measurement of drinking used several types of drinking questions and time frames. Results: Nearly all nonpregnant Russian women (95.9%) reported consuming alcohol in the last 12 months. Among nonpregnant women drinkers, 7.6% reported drinking heavily (29.58 mL or more ethanol/d), and 18.4% reported drinking ≥5 on at least 1 occasion. Contrary to expectations of Russian obstetricians, pregnant Russian women readily answered detailed questions about their drinking behavior during pregnancy. Nearly all pregnant women drank in the year before they became pregnant; of these, 60.0% reported drinking when they knew they were pregnant, and 34.9% drank in the past 30 days. Among pregnant women who drank in the past 30 days, 7.4% reporting having ≥5 drinks on at least 1 occasion. Nevertheless, more than 90% of pregnant and nonpregnant Russian women believed that alcohol has a detrimental effect on pregnancy outcomes. Conclusions: Pregnant and nonpregnant Russian women were willing to answer detailed questions about their drinking behavior. Although most pregnant women studied reduced their drinking during pregnancy, one‐third of the pregnant women did not stop drinking. It is important to find out what enabled two‐thirds of the pregnant women to stop drinking before or during their pregnancy.
Aim: To study caregiver reports of children’s experience of physical harm and exposure to family violence due to others’ drinking in nine societies, assess the relationship of harm with household drinking pattern and evaluate whether gender and education of caregiver affect these relationships.Method: Using data on adult caregivers from the Gender and Alcohol’s Harm to Others (GENAHTO) project, child alcohol-related injuries and exposure of children to alcohol-related violence (CAIV) rates are estimated by country and pooled using meta-analysis and stratified by gender of the caregiver. Households with and without heavy or harmful drinker(s) (HHDs) are compared to assess the interaction of caregiver gender on the relationship between reporting HHD and CAIV, adjusting for caregiver education and age. Additionally, the relationship between caregiver education and CAIV is analyzed with meta-regression.Results: The prevalence of CAIV varied across societies, with an overall pooled mean of 4% reported by caregivers. HHD was a consistent correlate of CAIV in all countries. Men and women in the sample reported similar levels of CAIV overall, but the relationship between HHD and CAIV was greater for women than for men, especially if the HHD was the most harmful drinker (MHD). Education was not significantly associated with CAIV.Conclusions: One in 25 caregivers with children report physical or family violence harms to children because of others’ drinking. The adjusted odds of harm are significantly greater (more than four-fold) in households with an HHD, with men most likely to be defined as this drinker in the household.
