Relationships between alcohol consumption, empathy and prosociality: differences by sex in argentine young adults

This paper analyzes the relationship between alcohol consumption, empathy and prosociality in young adults, exploring the influence of sex in these relationships. 120 university students from the cities of Paraná and Santa Fe, between 18 and 30 years old (M: 24.6, SD: 2.6), were personally interviewed. Their pattern of regular alcohol consumption, the possibility of an Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD), empathy and prosociality were evaluated. To analyze the relationship between variables, Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) was carried out. Women reported lower alcohol consumption and showed less AUDs than that showed by men. In addition, they obtained higher scores in the tests of empathy and prosocial behavior. Together, Empathy and prosociality explained 32% of the variance in the AUDs. However, the relationships between AUDs and empathy showed particularities by sex.