Roles, lifestyles, and well-being as predictors of alcohol consumption among young and midlife women.

Much remains to be learned about drinking patterns and their contexts among population-based women, that is, nontreatment seeking. This report involved secondary analysis of data obtained from 405 young women aged 18 to 35 years and 508 midlife women aged 36 to 55 years who were recruited for participation in two separate studies of women's health. Data were obtained from measures of women's roles: gender role attitudes; role strain; lifestyle behaviors, including alcohol use; well-being and distress; and demographic data; and were measured by descriptive and inferential statistics. Three important findings emerged. First, levels of weekly drinking patterns in both samples studied were consistent with national data. Second, when women were classified by the number of drinks of alcoholic beverages consumed per week, that is, fewer than 12 drinks per year, up to 10 drinks per week, or more than 10 drinks per week, significant differences emerged in both samples. However, patterns of risk and protective factors were inconsistent, which made it impossible to develop specific profiles across both study samples. Finally, the desire to cut down on weekly alcohol consumption was the most significant predictor of drinks per week in both samples.