Richard W. Wilsnack

Gender and alcohol consumption: patterns from the multinational GENACIS project.

AIMS To evaluate multinational patterns of gender- and age-specific alcohol consumption. DESIGN AND PARTICIPANTS Large general-population surveys of mens and womens drinking behavior (ns > 900) in 35 countries in 1997-2007 used a standardized questionnaire (25 countries) or measures comparable to those in the standardized questionnaire. MEASUREMENTS Data from men and women in three age groups (18-34, 35-49, 50-65) showed the prevalence of drinkers, former drinkers, and lifetime abstainers; and the prevalence of high-frequency, high-volume, and heavy episodic drinking among current drinkers. Analyses examined gender ratios for prevalence rates and the direction of changes in prevalence rates across age groups. FINDINGS Drinking per se and high-volume drinking were consistently more prevalent among men than among women, but lifetime abstention from alcohol was consistently more prevalent among women. Among respondents who had ever been drinkers, women in all age groups were consistently more likely to have stopped drinking than men were. Among drinkers, the prevalence of high-frequency drinking was consistently greatest in the oldest age group, particularly among men. Unexpectedly, the prevalence of drinking per se did not decline consistently with increasing age, and declines in high-volume and heavy episodic drinking with increasing age were more typical in Europe and English-speaking countries. CONCLUSIONS As expected, men still exceed women in drinking and high-volume drinking, although gender ratios vary. Better explanations are needed for why more women than men quit drinking, and why aging does not consistently reduce drinking and heavy drinking outside Europe and English-speaking countries.

Prevalence and risk factors for childhood sexual abuse in women: national survey findings.

OBJECTIVE We interviewed a U.S. national sample of women, aged 18 years and older to determine the prevalence and characteristics of childhood sexual abuse. We also examined which family and background variables were predictive of CSA in this sample. METHOD The study employed a series of detailed descriptive questions regarding childhood sexual experiences that were administered in a highly structured format by trained female interviewers. CSA prevalence rates were calculated using two definitions of CSA, one of which was slightly more inclusive. RESULTS Prevalence rates for the more inclusive CSA definition ranged from 21% to 32%, depending on how respondents who provided incomplete information about their sexual experiences were classified. The less inclusive CSA definition resulted in prevalence rates ranging from 15% to 26%. Additional information about the types of abuse experienced, perpetrator characteristics, age at first abuse, and physical and affective consequences of the abusive experiences are reported. The risk of CSA was related to higher scores on a measure of fathers rejection, and the interaction between parental drinking status and whether the respondent had lived with both parents during childhood. Further analysis of this interaction suggests that when respondents reported living with both biological parents, they were most at risk for CSA when their father was a nondrinker and their mother was a drinker.

Epidemiology of women's drinking

Although U.S. and Canadian surveys conducted over the past two decades have found little evidence of major changes in drinking levels or drinking problems among women in general, change may be occurring within certain subgroups of women, for example, based on age, ethnicity, employment, or marital status. Womens drinking behavior shows significant linkages to aspects of womens social environments, including gender of co-workers and drinking behavior of significant others. The greater complexity of recent findings reflects the increasing maturation of epidemiological research on womens drinking.

Women's Roles and Problem Drinking Across the Lifespan

Data from a 1981 national survey of womens drinking show that womens problem drinking is associated with different configurations of roles at different ages. For women drinkers under 65, risks of problem drinking increase with age-specific patterns of role deprivation: the lack or loss of marital, employment, and childrearing roles. The demands of multiple roles do not appear to be a major cause of womens problem drinking at any age. Close role relationships with other drinkers may become a more important factor in risks of problem drinking among women drinkers after age 50. The complex findings demonstrate the need for age-specific analyses of the effects of womens roles and role relationships on patterns of problem drinking.

Longitudinal Predictors of Binge Eating, Intense Dieting, and Weight Concerns in a National Sample of Women

As part of an ongoing longitudinal study of the antecedents and consequences of womens drinking in the U.S. adult female population, women who participated in a 1991 survey provided data in 1996 about their experiences of binge eating, intense dieting, and weight concerns ( N = 709, ages 26 to 54 in 1996). Five percent of the women reported binge eating in the past 30 days, 29% reported that they had engaged in intense dieting or fasting in the past 3 months, and 1.5% of the women met criteria for nonpurging bulimia nervosa (binge eating and intense dieting). Forty-three percent reported that their weight and shape were either very important or more important than anything else. After controlling for 1991 occurrence of binge eating, predictors of binge eating in 1996 were past 12-month use of illicit drugs (mostly marijuana) and greater occurrence of drinking to intoxication. A body mass index (BMI) × 1991 binge eating interaction indicated that having a higher BMI in 1991 predicted the onset of binge eating by 1996, but it did not predict the continuation (chronicity) of binge eating 5 years later. Year 1991 predictors of intense dieting in 1996 were having weight concerns, being unmarried, having used illicit drugs in the past 12 months, and having parents who had more than a high school education. Only a younger age in 1991 and having a lower BMI predicted 1996 weight concerns, after controlling for weight concerns 5 years earlier. These results indicate that risk factors for the onset and chronicity of disordered eating behaviors and attitudes across longer time periods in adult women may differ considerably from predictors found in cross-sectional studies or studies of adolescent females.

Self-reports of forgetting and remembering childhood sexual abuse in a nationally representative sample of US women☆

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this article is to describe patterns of forgetting and remembering childhood sexual abuse (CSA) in a nationally representative sample of US adult women. METHOD The respondents were a national probability sample of 711 women, aged 26 years to 54 years, residing in noninstitutional settings in the contiguous 48 states. In a 1996 face-to-face interview survey, trained female interviewers asked each respondent whether she had experienced any sexual coercion by family members or nonfamily members while growing up; whether she believed that she had been sexually abused (by family members or others); and whether she had ever forgotten the CSA experiences and, if so, how she had subsequently remembered them. RESULTS Twenty-one and six-tenths percent of respondents reported having sexually coercive experiences while growing up; of these, 69.0% indicated that they felt they had been sexually abused. More than one-fourth of respondents who felt sexually abused reported that they had forgotten the abuse for some period of time but later remembered it on their own. Only 1.8% of women self-described as sexually abused reported remembering the abuse with the help of a therapist or other professional person. CONCLUSIONS The findings indicate that, among women who report CSA, forgetting and subsequently remembering abuse experiences is not uncommon. According to the women surveyed, however, very few (1.8%) of those who felt abused recovered memories of CSA with help from therapists or other professionals. As one of the few studies of CSA memories in a nationally representative sample, this study suggests that therapist-assisted recall is not a major source of CSA memories among women in the US general population.

Sex Roles and Adolescent Drinking

In the United States, as in most other societies, men and boys drink more alcohol more frequently than do women and girls (Cahalan, Cisin, & Crossley, 1969; Child, Barry, & Bacon, 1965; Johnson, 1978; Rachal, Williams, Brehm, Cavanaugh, Moore, & Eckerman, 1975). The sex differences occur across all age levels, ethnic groups, and socioeconomic levels. The consistency of sex differences in drinking behavior suggests that drinking may be associated with traditional sex roles, that is, with traditional ideas about what constitutes appropriate and distinctive behavior for men and for women.

Drinking and Problem Drinking in US Women

General population surveys suggest that the percentage of US women who drink declined slightly during the 1980s. Comparisons of 1981 and 1991 national surveys using the same drinking measures show that fewer women drank heavily in 1991, and women drinkers drank less frequently and had fewer episodes of heavy drinking, although younger drinkers reported more frequent intoxication. Longitudinal analyses of 5-year changes in drinking behavior indicate that movement both into and out of problem drinking is greatest among women aged 21 to 34.

Information Control A Conceptual Framework for Sociological Analysis

In America today there are government or corporation officials who .have eavesdropped on telephone calls (Wise, 1976; &dquo;AT & T monitored millions of calls,&dquo; 1975; Shapley, 1977), kept secrets about political assassinations (U.S. Senate, 1975), used computer programs to conceal embezzlement (Allen, 1977), or provided conflicting facts about the safety of nuclear power (Ebbins and Kasper, 1974; Congressional Digest, 1977). The public has learned repeatedly how little the ordinary citizen knows about what government agencies do and how much government agencies know about what ordinary citizens do. Yet sociology has done little to help people understand these social problems of getting, keeping, and using information. Sociologists have left the study of

Times to drink: cross-cultural variations in drinking in the rhythm of the week

ObjectivesThe time of drinking in terms of daytime versus evening and weekday versus weekend is charted for regular drinkers in 14 countries in Europe, Asia, Latin America, Africa and Oceania.MethodsNational or regional adult population surveys from the GENACIS project.ResultsThe weekly rhythm of drinking varies greatly between societies. Drinking was generally more likely after 5 p.m. and on weekends. To this extent, alcohol consumption is now regulated by a universal clock. The relation of time of day and of the week of drinking to problems from drinking varied between societies. Drinking at specific times was more likely to predict problems among men than women, though for men the particular time varied, while weekday evenings were the most problematic time for women. The relation of drinking at a particular time to problems in part reflected that heavy drinkers were more likely to be drinking at that time.ConclusionsThere are commonalities across cultures in drinking by time of day and day of the week, but the implications of the timing for alcohol-related problems are fairly culture-specific.