Sexism Predicts Alcohol Use and Motivations Among College Women with Stronger Alcohol Identity

Nearly half of college students engage in risky alcohol use and college women may be more likely than men to drink in excess. However, little research has examined predictors of alcohol use unique to college women. College women often experience sexism; however, whether sexism contributes to greater alcohol use is not well established. The present study assessed alcohol-related outcomes among college women, examining the interaction between sexism and alcohol identity, associations in memory between self and alcohol-related constructs. Part 1 found greater anticipation of sexism predicted higher self-reported alcohol use among women strongly identifying with alcohol. Part 2 manipulated the presence of sexist feedback and assessed automatic alcohol action tendencies. Results indicated women receiving sexist feedback strongly identifying with alcohol exhibited greater automatic tendencies toward alcohol compared to women receiving non-sexist feedback. Results suggest sexism may contribute to greater alcohol use among college women who strongly identify with alcohol. SEXISM AND ALCOHOL IDENTITY 3 Sexism Predicts Alcohol Use and Motivations Among College Women with Stronger Alcohol Identity Despite prevention efforts, approximately 44% of college drinkers engage in risky alcohol use compared to only 36% of their non-student peers (Hingson & White, 2014). Further, college women may be more likely than college men to drink in excess (Hoeppner et al., 2013; Young, Morales, Esteban, Boyd, & D’Arcy, 2005). Whereas men are more likely to be diagnosed with an alcohol use disorder (AUD), women are more likely to start abusing alcohol at earlier ages and increase their rate of alcohol consumption more rapidly (Brady & Randall, 1999; Hernandez-Avila, Rounsaville, & Kranzler, 2004; Zilberman, Tavares, El-Guebaly, 2004). The negative effects of alcohol use are also greatly exacerbated among women, leading to quicker atrophy of the brain, heart, and muscles (Mann et al., 2005). Despite these concerns, little research has examined social cognitive factors that may influence excess drinking specific to college women. An unexplored predictor of alcohol use among college women is negative social interactions due to experiences of stigma (i.e., belonging to a devalued social group). The present research examines whether experiencing stigma-based social rejection (i.e., sexism) predicts alcohol-related outcomes among college women. Among women, sexism is associated with poorer academic performance (Schmader, 2002), working memory (Schmader & Johns, 2003), and self-control capacity (Inzlicht, McKay, & Aronson, 2006). Whereas poorer academic performance (Singleton, 2007), working memory (Khurana et al., 2013), and self-control capacity (Muraven, Collins, & Nienhaus, 2002) are linked to greater alcohol use, sexism has not been explicitly linked to greater alcohol use among college women. Experiencing sexism is related to many negative physical and mental health outcomes (e.g., depression, anxiety, hypertension, heart disease, and stroke; Brown & Pinel, SEXISM AND ALCOHOL IDENTITY 4 2003; Hunger & Major, 2015; Lewis, Derlega, Griffin, & Krowinski, 2003; Major & O'Brien, 2005; Major, Mendes, & Dovidio, 2013; Pascoe & Smart Richman, 2009). These negative consequences are triggered through mere expectations to experience sexism (i.e., gender stigma consciousness; Pinel, 1999) or acute sexism (Eliezer, Major, & Mendes, 2009). However, neither anticipated or acute sexism have been linked to risky alcohol use among college women. Women likely experience chronic stress due to anticipation of being the target of sexism (Major & O'Brien, 2005), which may be a precursor to greater alcohol use (Ayer, Harder, Rose, & Helzer, 2011; Beck, Thombs, Mahoney, & Fingar, 1995; Simpson & Arroyo, 1998). Targets of discrimination also exhibit increased risk-taking (Jamieson, Koslov, Nock, & Mendes, 2013). Black Americans experiencing racism are likely to develop harmful, long-term alcohol abuse and report more frequent instances of alcohol-related problems (i.e., police involvement, missing work; Gibbons, Gerrard, Cleveland, Willis, & Brody, 2004; Gibbons et al., 2007). Whereas college students typically drink for social or enhancement motives, experiences of discrimination predict unique variance in alcohol use among college students who belong to stigmatized groups (Hatzenbuehler, Corbinb, & Fromme, 2011). However, whether sexism is similarly related to greater alcohol use among college women is understudied. Responses to sexism are typically moderated by individual differences (Eliezer, Major, & Mendes, 2010; Pinel, 2004), thus, it is unlikely all women would engage in alcohol use following sexism. Further, alcohol use among college students is related to alcohol-related individual differences such as alcohol identity (i.e., the strength of associations between self-related and alcohol-related concepts in memory). Revisions of the theory of planned behavior suggest highly relevant self-concepts are predictive of behaviors like alcohol use (Collins & Carey, 2007; Conner & Armitage 1998; Fekadu & Kraft, 2001). Alcohol identity is an established self-concept SEXISM AND ALCOHOL IDENTITY 5 known to predict alcohol consumption, cravings, and alcohol-related problems among college students (Gray, LaPlante, Bannon, Ambady, & Shaffer, 2011; Lindgren et al., 2013). Further, alcohol identity accounts for greater variance in alcohol use compared to other alcohol-related individual differences (e.g., alcohol motivations; Lindgren et al., 2013) and consistently predicts alcohol consumption over time (Lindgren et al., 2016). Whereas research demonstrates alcohol identity’s usefulness in predicting alcohol use (Gray et al., 2011), its role in predicting alcohol use among following discrimination is unknown. Current Research We aim to extend the literature by examining the interaction between sexism and alcohol identity in predicting alcohol use. We test these relations among college women, since they are likely to be aware of and anticipate sexism (i.e., gender stigma consciousness; Pinel, 1999) and experience sexism on college campuses (Friedman & Leaper, 2010; Swim, Hyers, Cohen, & Ferguson, 2001). We hypothesize (1) greater experiences of sexism and (2) stronger alcohol identity will predict greater alcohol-related outcomes. We expect these factors will interact, such that (3) college women strongly identifying with alcohol who experience sexism will exhibit greater alcohol-related outcomes compared to women who do not experience sexism. We first tested these hypotheses using a cross-sectional study examining self-reported anticipation of sexism. The mere anticipation of discrimination, like sexism, may contribute to poor mental and physical health among stigmatized groups (Major & O’Brien, 2005; Pascoe & Smart Richman, 2009; Sawyer, Major, Casad, Townsend, & Mendes, 2011). Gender stigma consciousness is the extent to which women are aware of sexism and how often they expect to experience sexism (Crocker & Major, 1989; Pinel, 2002), and is associated with poorer academic performance (Brown & Lee, 2005; Pinel, Warner, & Chua, 2005), mental health (Lewis et al., SEXISM AND ALCOHOL IDENTITY 6 2003), and physical health (Hunger & Major, 2015; Lewis, Derlega, Clarke, & Kuang, 2006). Part 1 of this study examined how mere awareness of sexism, and its interaction with alcohol identity, relates to alcohol use among college women. We then manipulated exposure to acute sexism during a follow-up lab session assessing behavioral measures of automatic alcohol tendencies, which predict drinking history and acute alcohol use (i.e., in the lab; Wiers, Eberl, Rinck, Becker, and Lindenmeyer, 2011; Wiers, Rinck, Dictus, & Van den Wildenberg, 2009). Part 1 Method Participants. Participants (N = 302) were female undergraduate students recruited through the Psychology research subject pool at the University of Missouri – St. Louis who reported consuming at least 1 alcoholic drink in the past year (Mage = 23.14, SDage = 4.44).1 Ninety-five percent of participants reported drinking an alcoholic drink in the past 30 days. The sample included 56.6% Caucasians (n = 171), 28.8% African Americans (n = 87), 4.6% Multiracial individuals (n = 14), and 10% Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, Latinas, Middle Easterners, and other racial/ethnic groups. Participants were compensated with course credit. A sensitivity power analysis indicated an approximately small to medium effect size (β = 0.16) would provide 80% power to detect significant effects with the recruited sample. Measures and procedure. After providing informed consent, participants completed an online survey hosted by Qualtrics (Provo, UT) that included demographic questions and filler items (e.g., campus involvement). Participants then reported gender stigma consciousness using a scale developed by Pinel (1999). Ten items (α = .83) were rated on a 6-point scale, ranging from 1 (Very strongly disagree) to 6 (Very strongly agree). Higher values indicated greater anticipation and awareness of sexism. Example items included, “Stereotypes about women have SEXISM AND ALCOHOL IDENTITY 7 not affected me personally” (reverse coded), and, “Most men have a problem viewing women as equals.” Alcohol use was assessed using items adapted from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) Task Force on Recommended Alcohol Questions (NIAAA, 2003). Participants reported average number of drinking occasions (e.g., once a month) and average number of drinks consumed per occasion in the past 3 months. The number of drinking occasions was multiplied by drinks consumed per occasion to create a quantity/frequency variable with higher scores reflecting greater alcohol use (Bailey & Bartholow, 2016; Jackson & Sher, 2006). Participants then completed an Implicit Association Test (IAT; Gray et al., 2011) assessing alcohol identity using Inquisit s