College Women and Alcohol: A Relational Perspective

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Abstract
Little attention has been paid to college women's drinking, partly because women drink less than college men do, partly because they are less likely to get into trouble with the authorities, and partly because women have only recently been understood to develop differently and to have different needs from those of men. Recent theories stress the importance of relationships in women's development, identity, and self-esteem and failures in mutuality and intimacy as contributing to subjective pain and dysfunction. These theoretical formulations suggest a new understanding for women's use of alcohol, one that emphasizes drinking as a way of being with others, of seeking acceptance from peers, and of numbing the pain that comes from relationships that do not work. Women are at greater risk of being abused when drinking, and women who have been sexually or physically abused are at greater risk for abusing alcohol.