Drinking Like a Man: How Gender Norms Influence College Students’ Perceptions of Binge Drinkers
Discourses on Gender and Sexual Inequality
ISBN: 978-1-78743-197-3, eISBN: 978-1-78743-196-6
Publication date: 21 September 2017
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to further investigate the relationship between perceived adherence to gender norms and binge drinking in college students. Thus, researchers examined college students’ perceptions of adherence to masculine and feminine gender norms when gender and alcohol consumption of a vignette character were manipulated.
Methodology/approach
Undergraduate participants (N = 368) were randomly assigned to one of four vignette conditions: female moderate drinker, female binge drinker, male moderate drinker, male binge drinker and then surveyed regarding perceptions of the vignette character.
Findings
The results of this study indicate that there are significant relationships between the vignette character’s alcohol consumption and perceived adherence to feminine gender norms. The character’s gender, as well as the participant’s own alcohol consumption patterns, also related to perceived adherence to feminine gender norms.
Practical implications
College students’ perceptions of binge drinkers are influenced by gender norms, which has important implications for safe consumption of alcohol. When young men (or young women) are encouraged to drink to avoid appearing too feminine, negative consequences may be more likely. In this study, perceptions of the vignette character’s safety were also found to be related to alcohol consumption of the vignette character, as well as the alcohol consumption of the participant, suggesting that a heavy drinker might not show as much concern for another’s heavy consumption.
Keywords
Citation
Krieg, D.B. and Krause, A.K. (2017), "Drinking Like a Man: How Gender Norms Influence College Students’ Perceptions of Binge Drinkers", Discourses on Gender and Sexual Inequality (Advances in Gender Research, Vol. 23), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 91-113. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1529-212620170000023005
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2017 Emerald Publishing Limited