Relation of Drinking and Eating to Masculinity and Femininity

• Published in: The Journal of social psychology Vol. 138; no. 6; pp. 744 - 752
• Main Authors: Ricciardelli, Lina A., Williams, Robert J., Kiernan, Michael J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC Taylor & Francis Group 01.12.1998; Heldref; Clark University Press; Taylor & Francis Inc
• Subjects: Adult; Alcohol; Alcohol Abuse; Alcohol Drinking - psychology; Alcohol use; Attitude towards mental illness; Australia; Behavior; Binge eating; Biological and medical sciences; College Students; Coping; Diet; Drinking; Drinking Behavior; Eating behavior; Eating Disorders; Eating Habits; Factors; Family Environment; Feeding Behavior - psychology; Female; Females; Femininity; Gender; Gender Identity; Gender role conflict; Humans; Hypotheses; Males; Masculinity; Medical sciences; Perceptions; Personality; Problem drinking; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Questionnaires; Relationship; Resistance (Psychology); Role Conflict; Sex Role Identity; Sex roles; Social psychiatry. Ethnopsychiatry; Social psychology; Validity; Women; Human; Sex role; Attitude; Alcoholism; Female; Eating disorder; Feminity masculinity; Judgment
• ISSN: 0022-4545; 1940-1183
• DOI: 10.1080/00224549809603259

The relationship between desirable and undesirable aspects of masculinity and femininity and drinking and eating was investigated. A sample of 144 university women in Australia completed questionnaires that assessed masculinity and femininity, reported drinking, alcohol dependence, eating restraint, frequency of dieting, and overeating. Evidence of a common underlying dimension linking aspects of problem drinking and overeating to undesirable masculine characteristics was found. The results are consistent with the view that women engage in excessive consummatory behaviors such as bingeing to deal with their gender-role conflict.