Abstract
Alcohol misuse is an increasingly common problem in undergraduate women. Building upon research suggesting that maturing out of risky patterns of alcohol use can occur, our study tested how three facets of alcohol use change differentially over time in undergraduate women. A sample of 218 undergraduate women (M age = 20.6 years) participated in a four-wave, 18-month longitudinal study measuring frequency of alcohol consuming occasions, quantity of alcohol consumed per occasion, and alcohol-related problems. Growth curve analyses showed that alcohol frequency remained stable over 18 months, whereas alcohol quantity and problems decreased over time. Results indicate undergraduate women are drinking with similar frequency over time, but they are drinking a smaller quantity of alcohol per drinking occasion and they are experiencing fewer alcohol-related problems. Findings help clarify the maturity principle by showing a different pattern of drinking as undergraduate women age that involves lower quantities of alcohol per drinking occasion and less problematic alcohol use, but not necessarily less frequent drinking.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 66-69 |
| Number of pages | 4 |
| Journal | Addictive Behaviors |
| Volume | 66 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Mar 1 2017 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This research was made possible by an operating grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) to Sherry Stewart and Simon Sherry. ( grant #: 410-2009-1043 ) Logan Nealis was supported by a Nova Scotia Health Research Foundation (NSHRF) Scotia Scholarship and Jamie-Lee Collins was supported by an NSHRF Scotia Support Grant awarded to Sherry Stewart and Sean Barrett.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Elsevier Ltd
ASJC Scopus Subject Areas
- Medicine (miscellaneous)
- Clinical Psychology
- Toxicology
- Psychiatry and Mental health
