LAUSR

PurposeTo examine gender differences in the associations between childhood adversity and different types of substance use disorders and whether gender moderates these relationships.MethodsWe analyzed data from 19,209 women and 13,898 men as provided by Wave 2 (2004–2005) of the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC) to examine whether gender moderates the associations between childhood adversity and DSM-IV defined lifetime occurrence of alcohol, drug, and polysubstance-related disorders. We used multinomial logistic regression, weighted to be representative of the US adult civilian, noninstitutionalized population, and we calculated predicted probabilities by gender, controlling for covariates. To test which specific moderation contrasts were statistically significant, we conducted pair-wise comparisons corrected for multiple comparisons using Bonferroni’s method.ResultsFor each type of substance use disorder, risk was increased by more exposure to childhood adversity, and women had a lower risk than men. However, moderation effects revealed that with more experiences of childhood adversity, the gender gap in predicted probability for a disorder narrowed in relation to alcohol, it converged in relation to drugs such that risk among women surpassed that among men, and it widened in relation to polysubstances.ConclusionsKnowledge regarding substance-specific gender differences associated with childhood adversity exposure can inform evidence-based treatments. It may also be useful for shaping other types of gender-sensitive public health initiatives to ameliorate or prevent different types of substance use disorders.