Approximately 15% of adolescents report binge drinking—meaning drinking more than 4-5 alcoholic drinks within 2 hours—in the past week, and these rates may be higher in sexual and gender minority youth (SGMY—i.e., youth who are LGBTQIA +).
This week, Pediatrics is early releasing an article that does a deeper dive on this topic: “Binge Drinking Disparities by Grade, Race and Ethnicity, Sexual Orientation, and Gender Identity,” by Meg Bishop, PhD, and colleagues from the University of Maryland, George Mason University, and the University of Texas (10.1542/peds.2023-063978).
The authors analyzed 2017–2019 self-reported data about binge drinking in the past 30 days, sexual orientation, gender identity, grade, race, and ethnicity from the California Healthy Kids Survey, which surveys 7th, 9th, and 11th grade students.
As a reminder, sexual orientation describes the gender(s) to which one is sexually attracted, including heterosexual (straight), homosexual (gay, lesbian), and bisexual. Gender identity describes one’s personal sense of one’s own gender, compared to the sex assigned at birth—cisgender or transgender.
Approximately 5% of all students reported binge drinking in the past 30 days, and there were differences, including:
- Transgender students were more likely to report past 30-day binge drinking than cisgender students at all grades (e.g., 7.1% of transgender 6-8th graders, compared to 1.4% of cisgender 6-8th graders).
- Lesbian/gay and bisexual students were more likely to report past 30-day binge drinking than heterosexual students at all grades (e.g., for 9-10th graders, 3.9% of heterosexual students, 6.7% of lesbian/gay students, and 7.5% of bisexual students).
- While White 9-12th graders who identified as cisgender were more likely to binge drink than their Black and Asian peers, for those students who identified as transgender, those who identified as Black or Hispanic/were more likely to report past 30-day binge drinking than those who were in the same grade and identified as White.
There is much more to learn from the information shared in this article, so I encourage you to read it. It is important for us to recognize that differences in binge drinking emerge as early as middle school, and students who identify as sexual and gender minority and/or racial and ethnic minority may have higher rates in binge drinking.
