DRINKING PATTERNS OF MALE AND FEMALE FUTURE M.D.'S

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The goal of this study is to survey a medical school cohort at entrance into medical school and at two subsequent points during medical training, illuminating the psycho-social influences on alcohol consumption and alcohol-related problems in male and female future physicians. The study seeks to contrast the shifts in drinking behavior and alcohol-related problems over time in these men and women, with a primary goal of differentiating between earlier childhood attachment experiences, personality characteristics, and the characteristics of the professional training environment (e.g., stressors and types and degrees of social supports) in terms of their relative etiologic influence on male and female future physician drinking. A major hypothesis is that the stressors associated with medical training and the limitations in social supports will have a more powerful effect on female compared to male alcohol consumption. The data will be collected by means of self-report questionnaires encompassing: quantity, frequency and variability in the consumption of beer, wine and distilled spirits; alcohol-related problems; reasons for drinking; drug use patterns; perceived earlier parent-child relationships and disrupted relationships; personality characteristics (internal-external locus of control, self-esteem, and interpersonal dependency), recent social stressors and social supports. In addition, a sub-sample screened by the MAST will be interviewed, using a diagnostic assessment. A variety of multivariate statistical techniques will be used in the data analysis. The longer term objective is to retain a "research relationship" with this medical student cohort in order to ultimately assess its drinking behavior (and related problems) several years later in the early stages of medical practice.