Gender and context differences in alcohol expectancies

In 2 studies, the authors investigated gender and context effects of alcohol expectancies among U.S. college students. In Study 1, they examined the responses of 771 women and 493 men to the Sexual Enhancement (SE) subscale and the Relaxation and Tension Reduction (TR) subscale of the Alcohol Expectancy Questionnaire (S. A. Brown, B. A. Christiansen, & M. S. Goldman, 1987). They found no gender differences when they controlled for drinking quantity. When they controlled for drinking frequency, the men scored significantly higher on the TR subscale than the women did. In Study 2, also among U.S. college students, 41 women and 21 men first imagined that they were on blind dates or in long-term relationships and then completed the SE and TR subscales. On the SE subscale, the women scored higher in the relationship context than in the blind-date context, whereas the men did not vary between contexts. All the participants also reported more tension-reduction expectancies in the relationship context than in the blind-date context.