6 - (IOP 27) Gender Identity as a Potential Moderator Between College Belonging and Heavy Episodic Drinking

Alcohol consumption on college campuses, especially heavy episodic consumption, continues to be a challenge that results in numerous injuries and deaths of college students each year (SAMSHA, 2021). Previous research has highlighted that individuals who report greater belonging on campus may be at higher risk for heavy episodic drinking (e.g., Rahal, Perry, & Lanza, 2024). However, such research has produced limited knowledge about rates of heavy episodic drinking in transgender and gender expansive college students. One study (Dermody, Lamb, & Kerr, 2022) found that having a non-cisgender identity was associated with lower rates of heavy episodic drinking and proposed that it may be protective. As such, the present study sought to investigate the relationship between campus belonging and heavy episodic drinking in college students with gender identity as a potential moderator. Data from Wave 3 of the American College Health Association’s National College Health Assessment (ACHA-NCHA) were utilized to examine these questions. Data from 150,620 college undergraduates were analyzed to determine if feelings of belonging significantly predicted, among those reporting ever using alcohol, how many times in the past 2 weeks they engaged in heavy episodic drinking. Results for cisgender men (b = 0.02, se = 0.002, p < 0.001), and cisgender women (b = 0.02, se = 0.002, p < 0.001), were equivalent and in the same direction. Additionally, results for transgender participants (b = -0.08, se = 0.02, p < 0.001), and gender expansive participants (b = -0.03, se = 0.009, p < 0.001) were equivalent in in the same direction. As such, we combined cisgender men and women together to form a cisgender group and transgender and gender expansive individuals together to form a transgender and gender expansive group to ease interpretation of the moderation analyses. The Poisson regression testing the direct effect of belonging on heavy episodic drinking was significant and positive (b = 0.02, se = 0.002, p < 0.001). Results from the moderation analyses revealed that gender identity significantly moderated the relation between belonging and heavy episodic drinking (b = -0.03, se = 0.02, p < 0.001). Probing the interaction indicated that, for individuals who identify as cisgender, as belonging increased heavy episodic drinking significantly increased, whereas, for individuals who identify as transgender and gender expansive, as belonging increased heavy episodic drinking significantly decreased. Such results replicate previous findings (Dermody et al., 2022) and provide evidence that the relationship between belonging and heavy episodic drinking is not consistent across all gender identities. Our findings indicate that transgender and gender expansive college students may be at lower risk of heavy episodic drinking than their cisgender peers and that the experience of having a marginalized gender on college campuses may be a protective factor against heavy episodic drinking. Implications of these results will be discussed in relation to student affairs and campus programming possibilities concerning alcohol use.