Gender Differences in Stressful Life Events, Social Support, Perceived Stress, and Alcohol Use Among Older Adults: Results From a National Survey

Abstract

Stressful life events, perceived stress, and social support relationships with consumption, at-risk drinking, and alcohol use disorder (AUD) were studied in a population-based sample of current drinkers age 60+ in the National Epidemiologic Survey of Alcohol and Related Conditions (Wave 2; 2004–2005; n = 4,360). Stressful life events were associated with AUD among men and women, and crime victimization among men only. However, greater perceived stress was associated with lower consumption among women and greater odds of AUD in men, highlighting differences in the relationship between stress and alcohol use by gender that may be the result of the stress alcohol link.

Keywords :

• older adults
• alcohol use disorder
• perceived stress
• stressful events
• at-risk drinking
• NESARC

THE AUTHORS

Paul Sacco, PhD is an Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland School of Social Work, Baltimore, Maryland, USA. His research focuses on addictive behaviors with a focus on life course development and aging. Specifically, he has conducted research on the epidemiology of alcohol use and pathological gambling among older adults and is currently conducting research to understand relationships between daily alcohol consumption patterns and daily activities, motivations for drinking, and health. Dr. Sacco combines his work in substance use with an interest-latent variable modeling as a means of examining the measurement and longitudinal course of alcohol use and other addictive behaviors.

Dr. Kathleen K Bucholz is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri. She earned her PhD in epidemiology in 1986 from Yale University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in psychiatric epidemiology at Washington University. She is a Psychiatric Genetic Epidemiologist with primary interests in genetic and environmental influences on alcohol and drug use disorders, developmental models of AUD/DUD in African Americans, and alcohol and drug use nosology.

Donna Harrington, PhD, is Professor and Associate Dean for doctoral and postdoctoral education in the University of Maryland, Baltimore School of Social Work. She received her PhD in applied developmental psychology from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County in 1990. Dr. Harrington teaches doctoral courses in advanced data analysis and the integration of theory and research methods. Her research focuses on child maltreatment and development, measurement, ethics, and older adults.

Notes

1 EFA Results available from the first author.