Characterizing alcohol expectancies in the ABCD Study: associations with familial and psychosocial factors and relevant polygenic scores

Abstract

Alcohol expectancies (AEs) are associated with likelihood of alcohol initiation and subsequent alcohol use disorders. It is unclear whether genetic predisposition to alcohol use and/or related traits contributes to shaping how one expects to feel when drinking alcohol. We used the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study to examine associations between genetic (i.e., polygenic risk for problematic alcohol use, depression, risk-taking), familial (i.e., parent self-reported alcohol problems), and psychosocial (i.e., adverse childhood experiences, peer use and disapproval toward alcohol) factors and positive and negative AEs in alcohol-naïve children (max analytic N = 6,935). Mixed-effect regression models showed that parental education, importance of the child’s religious beliefs, adverse childhood experiences, peer disapproval of alcohol use, and polygenic liability for risk-taking were associated with positive and/or negative AEs, to varying degrees. Overall, our results suggest several familial and psychosocial predictors of AEs but little evidence of contributions from polygenic liability to problematic alcohol use or related phenotypes.