Self-Esteem and Problem Drinking Among Male & Female College Students William R. Corbin, Lily D. McNair, James Carter University of Georgia Journal of Alcohol and Drug Education Sara Fedson

Theory  To examine the relationship between level of alcohol consumption and self-esteem for college males and females.

Hypothesis  A higher portion of males than females would meet classification as potential problem drinkers.  Gender was expected to moderate the relationship between alcohol consumption and self-esteem.  More specifically, female problem drinkers were expected to display significantly lower self-esteem than problem drinking males.

Theoretical Construct I  Average alcohol consumption  Corresponding Operational Definition  Daily Drinking Questionnaire (DDQ)  Subjects asked to estimate average alcohol consumption for each day of the week in a typical month.  DDQ is a shortened version of the Drinking Practices Questionnaire, which was developed to measure volume, quantity and frequency of alcohol consumption.

Theoretical Construct II  Self-esteem level  Corresponding Operational Definition  Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale  Commonly used 10-item scale  Items were scored on a 5 point Likert type scale, with scores ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree.  Possible scores ranged from 0 to 40 with higher scores indicating higher self-esteem.

Independent Variable  Sex  Qualitative  2 levels (Male & Female)

Dependent Variable  Self-esteem  Quantitative  The higher the score, the higher the self- esteem (0 to 40)

Average weekly consumption 0 drinks (Abstinent) 1-7 drinks (light) 8-14 drinks (moderate) drinks (light heavy) drinks (heavy) 28+ drinks (very heavy)  Each subject was assigned to 1 of 3 groups based on the original six levels.  Groups were collapsed to allow comparisons between abstinent, moderate and potential problem drinkers.  Subjects consuming 15+ drinks (potential problem drinkers)  Subjects consuming 1-14 drinks (moderate)  Subjects consuming 0 drinks (abstinent)  Various levels of consumption ranging from drinks per week have been identified as useful criterion to distinguish between problem and non-problem drinking.

Study and Subjects  2x3 ANOVA  Subjects:  130 male & 130 female undergraduates  Participants were volunteers from the human research pool within the department of psychology.  Subjects varied from 17 to 37 years of age.  Over 90% falling between ages  Less than 30% were of legal drinking age. Male Female AbstinentModerateHeavy Drinking Levels Sex

Number of male and female subjects falling in each of the original six drinking categories based on average weekly consumption

Number of male and female subjects falling in collapsed categories based on original six drinker levels

Frequency of Alcohol Use  The mean number of drinks consumed per week was 14.9 (SD=14.7) for the entire sample.  Over 67% of the sample reported consuming alcohol in the range of 2 or 3 times per month to 3 or 4 times per week.  39.2% of subjects met criterion as potential problem drinkers.  12.7% of the total sample did not consume any alcoholic beverages.

Sex and Age Differences in Alcohol Use  The percentages of males and females who consume alcohol were similar:  86.1% males  82.2% females  Main differences were:  59.2% males consume 5 or 6 drinks on every occasion and only 35.9% of females.  51.5% of males and 26.4% of females met criteria for potential problem drinking.  Men consume nearly twice as much as females.  The mean for males was 18.9 (SD=16.9) drinks per week and the mean for females was 10.7 (SD=10.8) drinks per week.

Self-esteem differences among groups  A significant inverse interaction was found between sex and level of consumption (p<.05)  For males, as alcohol consumption increased, self-esteem also increased.  For females, as alcohol consumption increased, self-esteem decreased.  Abstinent females displayed significantly higher self-esteem than either moderate or heavy drinking females (p<.01)

Inverse interaction between drinker level and gender on self-esteem

 Different patterns of self-esteem for males and females found in this study indicate that females may be at a greater risk for low self-esteem associated with heavy alcohol consumption.  Results could be affected by the university setting, where heavy alcohol consumption may be considerably more normative than in other lighter drinking populations.

 On the daily drinking questionnaire it did not specify what was considered one drink. Is one shot, one beer, one glass of wine and one mixed drink all considered to be one drink?  One drink for someone may be two drinks for someone else. Need to control for this.  This study helped clarify the relationship between drinking and self-esteem among male and female college students.