IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v16y2019i5p900-d213329.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Protective Behavioral Strategies and Alcohol Consumption: The Moderating Role of Drinking-Group Gender Composition

Author

Listed:
  • Carmen Tabernero

    (Department of Social Psychology, INCYL, University of Salamanca, 37007 Salamanca, Spain)

  • Tamara Gutiérrez-Domingo

    (University of Córdoba, IMIBIC, 5000 Cordoba, Spain)

  • Bárbara Luque

    (University of Córdoba, IMIBIC, 5000 Cordoba, Spain)

  • Olaya García-Vázquez

    (University of Salamanca, 37007 Salamanca, Spain)

  • Esther Cuadrado

    (University of Córdoba, IMIBIC, 5000 Cordoba, Spain)

Abstract

Background . There is international concern about the negative consequences for health related to young people’s alcohol consumption. Peer relationships can play a positive and protective role to cope with risky behaviors associated with alcohol consumption. Objective . This study investigated the influence of protective behavioral strategies (PBS) on alcohol consumption and the moderating role of drinking-group gender composition and drinking-group size. Methods . The sample comprised 286 youths (mean age = 23.49; SD = 2.78; 67.5% female). Participants reported their protective behavioral strategies, their alcohol consumption and the size (overall mean = 7.44; SD = 3.83) and gender composition (62.58% mixed; 19.93% all-female; 9.8% all-male) of their social drinking groups. The mean sizes of mixed, all-female, and all-male groups were 8.27, 5.34, and 6.2, respectively. Results . Data showed that women consume less alcohol and use more protective strategies than men, particularly those strategies directed at avoiding negative consequences. Furthermore, the number of men in a group influences protective strategies and consumption, therefore drinking-group gender composition moderates the relationship between protective strategies and alcohol consumption. The more protective strategies that young adults use, the lower their alcohol consumption. This relationship is moderated by the size of the group. Conclusion . Strategies to prevent risky drinking behavior should focus on both PBS shared by drinking-group members and the training in individual PBS associated with drinking behavior. Finally, taking into account the relationship between drinking-group gender composition and protective behavioral strategies for alcohol consumption, a positive protector role for individual and group habits in relation to alcohol consumption is discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Carmen Tabernero & Tamara Gutiérrez-Domingo & Bárbara Luque & Olaya García-Vázquez & Esther Cuadrado, 2019. "Protective Behavioral Strategies and Alcohol Consumption: The Moderating Role of Drinking-Group Gender Composition," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(5), pages 1-13, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:5:p:900-:d:213329
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/5/900/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/5/900/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Anees Bahji & Paul Boonmak & Michelle Koller & Christina Milani & Cate Sutherland & Salinda Horgan & Shu-Ping Chen & Scott Patten & Heather Stuart, 2024. "Associations between Gender Expression, Protective Coping Strategies, Alcohol Saliency, and High-Risk Alcohol Use in Post-Secondary Students at Two Canadian Universities," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 21(1), pages 1-12, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:5:p:900-:d:213329. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.