Gender Differences in Alcohol Use Moderated By Parental Factors Among Chinese Adolescents

Background/Purpose: This study examined gender differences in alcohol use among 7^th to 9^thgrade Chinese adolescents, and whether gender differences in alcohol use vary as a function of parental protective factors perceived by adolescents. Literature suggests drinking prevalence among Chinese boys are substantially higher than Chinese girls. And parental protective factors work differently for boys and girls when predicting adolescent drinking (i.e., some parental factors work well for one gender than the other). However, it is not clear how to minimize gender differences, in particular by decreasing Chinese boys’ drinking level. The present study is the first to tackle this research question and has potential implications in enhancing preventative interventions targeting alcohol use behavior among Chinese youth.     

Methods: We analyzed data from the 2003 China Global School-based Student Health Survey (GSHS) data, a cross-sectional study with a representative sample of 8,805 7^thto 9^thgrade junior high school students in 4 major cities in China. GSHS questionnaires were developed following the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance (YRBS) questionnaire established by Center for Disease Control in the United States. GSHS questionnaire has been tested and adapted widely in assessing health-risk behaviors in mainland China and has acceptable levels of reliability and validity. Alcohol use was measured by four single items focused on the frequency of alcohol use, the amount of alcohol use, episodes of heavy drinking, and troubles associated with alcohol use. Parental protective factors include parental monitoring, parental involvement, and parental empathy. We used regression analysis with maximum likelihood parameter estimation and robust Huber-White standard errors in Mplus 6.

Results: The sample has a mean age of 13.72, and 51.1% female adolescents. Gender are evenly distributed across 7^th to 9^th grade as well as across the four cities (i.e., Beijing, Hangzhou, Wuhan, Urumchi). Both boys and girls reported having similar levels of parental monitoring and parental empathy except that girls reported less parental involvement than boys. Chinese boys scored significantly higher than girls in all four drinking outcomes at all levels of perceived parental protective factors (p < .05) when controlling for grade and city. Across all the three parental factors and the four drinking outcomes, there was an overall trend that the gender differences in drinking outcomes decrease as the level of perceived parental factors increases. The differences were reduced by parental factors moderating the male drinking levels down towards the female levels. However, the gender differences in drinking outcomes did not always decrease at each level increase of parental protective factors. Under some circumstances, gender differences in drinking outcomes only vary as a function of the presence of perceived parental factors, rather than the magnitude.

Conclusions and Implications: Chinese boys drinking significantly more than Chinese girls. However, these gaps can be decreased by strengthening the level of protective parental factors. Future studies could further examine gender differences and dose effects of parental protective factors (measured from both parents and youth). Future preventative intervention programs targeting alcohol use behavior among Chinese youth could tailor the treatment components for different genders.