Heavy Drinking Women: Drinking Patterns and Resources for Controlled Drinking

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Abstract
The study attempts to understand how women experience heavy drinking, factors affecting their drinking and women's means of influencing their own behaviour. The data consist of two parts. First, a postal survey was conducted among the female population of the Helsinki region. Harmful drinking was measured using the AUDIT instrument. Secondly, 88 heavy drinking women who had responded to the postal survey were interviewed using qualitative methodology. Factors pushing women towards controlled or moderate drinking are examined on the basis of the qualitative interviews. Adopting a drinking identity is a process, within which emotional experiences are crucial. Similarly, gaining control of one's drinking can be seen as a cognitive and emotional process of forming a positive non-drinking identity. This process has gender-specific elements.

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