Female Drinking From Young Adolescence to Middle Age: A Prospective Longitudinal Study

Abstract

This study aimed at describing female drinking from young adolescence to middle age in a female Swedish community cohort (N = 238). Different aspects of alcohol habits were assessed at the ages of 14, 27, and 43, and the analyses focused on stability and change over this time. The results showed that large variations in alcohol habits over the life course were normally occurring phenomena. Furthermore, advanced drinking habits were neither necessary nor sufficient for developing heavy drinking or alcohol-related symptoms in adult age. The developmental patterns found in this study resembled the developmental patterns earlier described in male cohorts.

KEYWORDS:

• adolescence
• alcohol
• female drinking
• longitudinal

Acknowledgments

This work was funded by the Swedish Alcohol Retailing Monopoly Research Fund, the Swedish Council for the Planning and Coordination of Research and the Swedish Council for Social Research, the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation, the Örebro County Council, RBJ, and the Swedish Board of Education.

Notes

^a Type, observed cell value significantly more frequent than expected by chance.

^b Antitype, observed cell value significantly less frequent than expected by chance.

*p < 0.05. Spearman's r _rho = 0.20 (p < 0.005).

^a Type, observed cell value significantly more frequent than expected by chance.

^b Antitype, observed cell value significantly less frequent than expected by chance.

*p < 0.05. **p < 0.01. Spearman's r _rho = 0.13 (p < 0.05).

^a Type, observed cell value significantly more frequent than expected by chance.

^b Antitype, observed cell value significantly less frequent than expected by chance.

**p < 0.01. ***p < 0.005. Spearman's r _rho = 0.26 (p < 0.005).

^a Type, observed cell value significantly more frequent than expected by chance.

^b Antitype, observed cell value significantly less frequent than expected by chance.

Actually, the subjects were asked the same question about a year and a half later. As the development of drinking habits is very rapid in these ages, the distribution of subjects with experiences of drunkenness was quite different (Never = 28%, 1–3 times = 28%, 4–10 times = 17%,>10 times = 27%) as compared to the distribution at age 14. The potential implications of when, in this rapidly ongoing development, one takes the starting point has not been analyzed. The starting point in the present study was at an age when most girls had not been drunk (59%) and a few reported very advanced experiences of drunkenness (8%).