Are Girls Different? A Developmental Perspective on Gender Differences in Risk Factors for Substance Use among Adolescents

Abstract

The goal of the previous chapter was to examine interethnic differences in patterning of risk factors, protective factors, and stages of progression. The primary focus of this chapter is to explore gender differences in risk factor patterns using traditional risk factor models described at the outset of Chapter 4. Research studies on gender differences in alcohol use conducted before the mid-1970s concluded that at all age levels males were much more likely than females to use alcohol (Cahalan, Cisin, & Crossley , 1969; Forslund & Gustafson, 1970; Maddox & McCall, 1964; Straus & Bacon, 1953). Over the past 20 years, however, a number of researchers have noted an increasing gender convergence in rates of adolescent substance use with prevalence rates for females increasing and approaching the higher rates of males (Downs & Robertson, 1982; Kaestner, Frank, Marel, & Schmeider, 1986; Prather & Fidel, 1978; Weschler & McFadden, 1976; White, Johnson, & Garrison, 1985; Wilsnack & Wilsnack, 1978). Several large epidemiological surveys comparing gender differences in prevalence rates of substance use initiation have documented ,similar proportions of alcohol and cigarette users among male and female adolescents (Bachman et al., 1991; Barnes and Welte, 1986). National studies of drinking problems among college students have raised concern about the frequency of heavy drinking among females (Weschler, Davenport, Dowdall, Moeykens, & Castillo, 1994). And a number of recent studies have reported that young adolescent girls are experimenting with all substances, including illicit drugs, at rates similar to those of boys (Farrell et al., 1992a,b; Khoury, Warheit, Zimmerman, Vega, & Gil, 1996; Murray, Perry, O’Con-