The gender gap in drinking habits among young Koreans, 2001~2014

Abstract

While the existence of widespread differences between males and females drinking behaviours is widely acknowledged and has been explored several times, yet mostly in Western countries on both national and international scales, this paper aims at exploring the gender gap among young Koreans, aged from 12 to 24, and at analysing its evolution over a 13 year period by comparing some of the data made available by the KNHANES report, a Korean national survey carried out annually. For this paper the answers from respondents surveyed in 2001 and in the last 2014 survey have been used. The final goal of the research is to investigate whether convergence in drinking patterns has occurred or not, and to determine its nature. To do so, the paper mostly relies on the analysis of key variables such as the abstinence rate, the age of onset, the average quantities drunk, the frequencies at which drinking occurs as well as the likelihood to receive criticisms because of ones drinking. The sample distributions and the sex ratio analysis over time will be major indicators. Among the most significant outcomes of the research, it has been shown that if most of the variables follow rather similar orientations for both males and females, namely less abstinence, a younger age of onset, greater quantities drunk, it has not necessarily led to a convergence in drinking patterns: if the 2014 alcohol intake indicators clearly show closer patterns between male and female drinkers, others such as the age of onset or the likelihood of getting criticized are not as assertive while indicators linked to drinking frequency clearly point toward diverging patterns. Lastly, whether drinking habits converge or not, a large majority of the analysis carried out in this paper highlights the existence of a wide gap among young females and males, who remain still much more likely to drink more, more often and earlier in their life.