Gender Differences in Traditional Gender Role Norms and Substance Use Behaviors and Attitudes Among Adolescents in Mexico

Background and Purpose: Drug use has become a shared Mexican–U.S. public health concern as previously lower substance use rates among Mexican youth have become increasingly similar to those in the U.S. In addition, recent studies in Mexico show that prior gaps in rates of alcohol use and tobacco use between males and females are narrowing rapidly, largely due to increases in substance use by younger women and girls.  A commonly posited factor for this shift is that traditional gender role norms regulating substance use are changing among Mexican adolescents.  Various factors such as economics, migration, global media, and social movements have expanded women’s rights and diminished some aspects of traditional gender role expectations in Mexico, which also may influence substance use among adolescents. However, little empirical research demonstrates Mexican adolescents’ gender role norms and describes gender differences in substance use behaviors, attitudes, and norms.

Methods: Data come from middle school aged students (n=4,937) in 17 middle schools in Mexico City, Monterrey, and Guadalajara. These sites were chosen as the largest metropolitan and economic hubs in Mexico, as major sending communities to the US, and as prime destinations or stop-overs for migrants coming from rural Mexico, Central and South America, many on an intended migration path to the US. Analytic data come from pre-tests from a large feasibility trial testing keepin’ it REAL, a substance use prevention program, in Mexico. Key outcomes include substance use (measures of 30-day amount of alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana use), attitudes (positive and negative expectancies of substance use), and antidrug norms (personal, injunctive, and descriptive). In addition, the gender roles subscale of the Mexican American Cultural Values Scales for Adolescents was used to assess adolescents’ beliefs in having traditional and distinct roles for males and females. Preliminary analyses used t-tests to detect significant gender differences in key outcomes.

Results:  Results indicated that adolescent males in Mexico adhere to traditional gender roles significantly more than females do (t=11.17, p<.001).   For 30-day substance use, males used significantly more alcohol (t=3.59, p<.001), cigarettes (t=2.91, p<.01), and marijuana (t=4.25, p<.001) than females. Personal attitudes towards substance use indicated that males had significantly greater positive expectancies about using substances than females (t=7.63, p<.001); however there were no significant gender differences on negative expectancies about using substances (t=-.88, p=.38).  In addition, there were no gender differences in adolescents’ own personal norms against using substances (t=-1.81, p=.07). However, while males report weaker injunctive norms against substance among their friends (t= t=-8.03, p<.001), females were significantly more likely to report a higher proportion of their peers using substances (t=-6.82, p<.001). OLS regression models will test if adherence to traditional gender roles significantly predicts substance use, attitudes, and norms in males and females.

 Conclusions: Knowledge of gender and gender role dynamics that impact substance use in Mexico can enhance understanding of similar dynamics in Mexican heritage communities in the US especially those comprised of immigrant families that are establishing or expanding immigrant communities across the nation.