Citation

Bostwick WB, McCabe SE, Horn S, Hughes T, Johnson T, Valles JR. J. Am. Coll. Health 2007; 56(3): 285-292.

Affiliation

Adler School of Professional Psychology, Chicago, IL.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.3200/JACH.56.3.285-292

PMID

18089511

Abstract

Objective and Participants: The authors compared the drinking behaviors, motivations, and problems of collegiate bisexual women with those of heterosexual women (N = 2,788; n = 86 bisexual women). Methods: Data came from the 2003 Student Life Survey, a random population-based survey at a large midwestern university. The authors explored the hypothesis that bisexual women would be more likely than heterosexual women to report drinking motivations related to stress and coping as a result of sexual identity stigma. Results: They found that bisexual women drank significantly less than did heterosexual women. There were few differences between the 2 groups in drinking motivations and problems. Bisexual women reported a comparable number of problems related to their drinking but were significantly more likely to report contemplating suicide after drinking than were heterosexual women. Conclusions: More research is needed to understand the finding that despite lower levels of alcohol consumption, bisexual women reported a comparable number of drinking problems. College health educators and health care providers need to be aware of findings related to heightened suicidal risk among bisexual women.

Language: en