A Multilevel Analysis of Regional and Gender Differences in the Drinking Behavior of 23 Countries.

: Drinking behavior differs not only among countries, but also among regions within a country. However, the extent of such variation and the interplay between gender and regional differences in drinking have not been explored and are addressed in this study. : Data stem from 105,061 individuals from 23 countries of the GENACIS data set.

The Harms That Drinkers Cause: Regional Variations Within Countries.

Aims: Multinational studies of drinking and the harms it may cause typically treat countries as homogeneous. Neglecting variation within countries may lead to inaccurate conclusions about drinking behavior, and particularly about harms drinking causes for people other than the drinkers. This study is the first to examine whether drinkers' self-reported harms to others from drinking vary regionally within multiple countries.

Childhood Victimization, Internalizing Symptoms, and Substance Use Among Women Who Identify as Mostly Heterosexual.

Purpose: The current article examines substance use behavior and associated factors that contribute to risk of substance misuse, such as history of childhood victimization and reports of internalizing symptoms among women from various sexual identity subgroups.

Methods: We recruited a convenience sample of 332 community and university student women (M age = 20.88).

Substance use and related problems among U.S. women who identify as mostly heterosexual.

Background: We used data from a nationally representative sample to compare substance use outcomes among adult women who identified as mostly heterosexual with those who identified as exclusively (only) heterosexual.

Method: We analyzed data from mostly heterosexual women and only heterosexual women in Wave 5 (2001) of the National Study of Health and Life Experiences of Women (weighted n = 1085).

Results: Mostly heterosexual women were significantly more likely than only heterosexual women to report every alcohol-related outcome included in our analyses except lifetime treatment.

Sexual identity group differences in child abuse and neglect.

Childhood abuse and neglect are pervasive problems among girls and young women that have numerous health consequences. Research suggests that sexual minority women are more likely than heterosexual women to report childhood abuse and neglect, but little is known about which sexual minority women are at greatest risk for these early adverse experiences. Using data from a pooled sample of women in a national probability study and in a large community-based study of sexual minority women designed to replicate the national study's methodology (pooled n = 953), we investigated rates and characteristics of childhood sexual abuse, physical abuse, and neglect among women from five sexual identity groups.

Gender differences in the factor structure of the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test in multinational general population surveys.

Background: Most gender-specific studies of the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) have focused on gender differences in thresholds for hazardous drinking. This study examines gender differences in the factor structure of the AUDIT in general-population surveys.

Methods: General-population surveys from 15 countries provided 27,478 current drinkers' responses to the AUDIT and related measures.

Paternal drinking, intimate relationship quality, and alcohol consumption in pregnant Ukrainian women.

Objective: Maternal alcohol consumption during pregnancy and fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs) represent a significant public health problem. The influence of the male partner's alcohol consumption patterns and the quality of the partner's intimate relationship might be important factors to consider in the design of successful FASD prevention programs.

Method: As part of the Collaborative Initiative on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders, 166 pregnant women in two regions in Ukraine participated in an in-person interview at an average gestational age of 18-19 weeks.

Cohabitation, gender, and alcohol consumption in 19 countries: a multilevel analysis.

We used an ecological paradigm and multilevel analytic techniques to analyze gender-specific relationships of cohabitation (versus marriage) to drinking in 19 countries (n = 32,922) and to "heavy episodic drinking" (HED) in 17 countries (n = 24,525) in surveys (1996-2004) from Gender, Alcohol, and Culture: An International Study. Cohabitation was associated with elevated risk of HED among drinkers of both genders, controlling for age, education, and societal characteristics. The association between cohabitation and HED tended to be stronger for female drinkers than for male drinkers.

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 men's and women's drinking behavior (n's > 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.

Alcohol use in pregnant and nonpregnant Russian women.

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.

Are U.S. women drinking less (or more)? Historical and aging trends, 1981-2001.

Objective: Women's alcohol consumption in the United States has aroused increased public concern, despite a scarcity of evidence of any major increases in women's drinking. To help resolve this apparent inconsistency, we examined patterns of historical and age-related changes in U.S.

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.