Young Adult Women’s Alcohol Use is Increasingly Driven by Social Reasons, Narrowing the Binge-Drinking Gap by Gender

The narrowing gap between binge drinking among adult women and men has been driven partly by women’s rising use of alcohol for social reasons—to have fun. In addition, women are increasingly using alcohol to relax or relieve tension, a new study has found. Alcohol use in the USA has increased steadily over the past 20 years, and excessive drinking underlies 1 in 8 deaths of working-age adults. The COVID-19 pandemic contributed to a 25% increase in alcohol-related deaths from 2019 to 2020. Overall, figures like these mask differences by age, however. For over four decades, alcohol use and binge drinking have declined among adolescents and early adults. But by age 30, that effect has plateaued or reversed. Binge drinking has risen more among women than men, narrowing the gender gap for reasons that haven’t been explained by broad societal trends (such as education, family timing, and gender roles). For the study in Alcohol: Clinical & Experimental Research, US researchers considered the role of evolving motivations to drink. If these changed over time in ways that aligned with drinking behavior among demographic groups, that may help explain alcohol trends and potentially inform more effective prevention and treatment efforts. 

Investigators evaluated changing drinking motivations among people born between 1958 and 1990. They also looked at whether those motivations influenced binge drinking trends among men and women. The study drew on survey data involving 14,190 people who were tracked starting in 12th grade between 1976 and 2008. The questions covered alcohol use, including frequency of binge drinking, defined as 5 or more drinks in a row. Among the participants, 2,450 students were reassessed one or two years after the first visit and then five times every two subsequent years. In some cases, these surveys explored reasons for drinking: social (to have fun), enhancement (to feel good or get drunk), conformity (to avoid social rejection), and coping (to forget about problems). The researchers used statistical analysis to track changing rates of binge drinking over time and by sex, as well as participants’ stated reasons for drinking. 

The analysis yielded four main findings. First, teens and young adults have increasingly chosen abstinence from drinking, contributing to declining alcohol use and binge drinking in those age cohorts. Second, among those who drink, cited reasons for alcohol use have shifted across time, with additional variations by age group. Most notably, drinking for social reasons—a motivation linked to binge drinking—has increased markedly. Third, drinking to relax has also increased by age among men and women. Fourth, the rate of increased drinking for social reasons has been notably faster among women than men. Together, these results suggest that increased binge drinking in adulthood is influenced in part by reduced alcohol use among young adults and rising consumption among older adults. Binge drinking rates in adulthood are partly explained by the tendency to drink for social reasons, particularly among women (drinking to relax and relieve tension is less influential in this regard). Although men remain more likely than women to binge drink, drinking motivations of men and women are converging. 

Women’s changing motivation for drinking is driven by societal factors, including women’s expanding resources for socializing with alcohol. The findings could inform public health initiatives around alcohol pricing and taxation and countering misleading marketing messaging. These approaches may promote social and recreational activities that de-center alcohol.

Reasons for alcohol use from 1976 to 2020 in the United States among those ages 18 to 30: Historical changes and mediation of cohort effects in binge drinking. K. Keyes, C. Rutherford, M. Patrick, J. M. Platt, D. Kloska, & J. Jager. (pp xx)

ACER-24-5969.R1