Gender differences in drinking patterns among Hong Kong Chinese youth: A pilot study

About one year before the People's Republic of China regained political con trol of Hong Kong, a semistructured interview study was conducted among a g roup of 101 Hong Kong Chinese adolescents to explore their drinking behavio r. The purpose of this exploratory study was to look for empirical evidence confirming the general hypothesis that wherever Chinese reside, they are m oderate drinkers. Specifically, the study was designed to examine whether m ale and female adolescents gave different reasons for their drinking and no ndrinking behavior, were differentially affected by parents' drinking, and experienced differential consequences resulting from alcohol use. The resul ts confirm that Chinese youth in Hong Kong are moderate drinkers. Only mini mal differences exist between the genders. The traditional Chinese normativ e view of alcohol may partly explain the results, an observation that sugge sts future research into the sociocultural features that influence drinking among youth.