“Drink Like a Man!” Masculine Drinking Norms, Alcohol Protective Behavioral Strategies, and Severity of Hazardous Alcohol Use among College Men

Objective: Learned alcohol-specific gender norms can impact drinking behaviors in nuanced ways. Research indicates that endorsing the masculine drinking norm (MDN) of excess (e.g., “A real man can drink a lot”) is positively associated with alcohol use, while the inverse is true for endorsing the MDN of control (e.g., “A real man knows when he’s had enough to drink and is able to stop”). Studies also indicate that using alcohol protective behavioral strategies (PBS) can reduce risk for heavy drinking, and that men tend to use alcohol PBS less often than women. Thus, there is a need to examine how endorsement of MDNs is linked to alcohol PBS use, particularly the extent to which endorsement of MDNs is directly associated with severity of hazardous drinking, and indirectly, through their relations with alcohol PBS use. Methods: College men (n=1296; Mage=20.09/SD=1.80; White=62.9%; cisgender=99.6%; heterosexual=92.2%) from 12 universities completed an online questionnaire. Results: Path analyses indicated that the MDN of excess was directly and indirectly associated with greater hazardous drinking via decreased use of PBS overall, and specifically, manner of drinking-PBS. Conversely, the MDN of control was indirectly associated with lower hazardous drinking via increased use of PBS overall, and specifically, serious harm reduction-PBS. Conclusions: Findings advance our understanding of alcohol PBS by indicating that MDN can shape how these strategies are enacted among college men which, in turn, can affect their severity of risk for hazardous drinking. Practitioners could encourage alcohol PBS use by leveraging masculine beliefs around control in counseling settings.