Examining Explanatory Mechanisms of the Effects of Early Alcohol Use on Young Adult Alcohol Dependence

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Objective: This study examined potential explanatory mechanisms linking childhood alcohol use onset and chronicity of adult alcohol dependence by testing the following three competing hypotheses: (1) a marker hypothesis, where early onset of alcohol use may be simply a marker for other factors that have been linked to both age at initiation and adult alcohol problems; (2) a compromised development hypothesis, where early alcohol initiation may interfere with adolescent development, which can lead to later alcohol problems; and (3) an increased substance use hypothesis, where early onset of alcohol use may lead to increased substance use in adolescence and, in turn, chronic alcohol dependence. Method: Data came from a longitudinal community sample of 808 participants recruited at age 10 in 1985. Participants were followed through age 33 in 2008 with 92% retention. Results: Childhood onset of alcohol use (before age 11), when compared with initiation during adolescence, predicted an increased chronicity of adult alcohol dependence, even after accounting for the hypothesized confounds from the marker hypothesis. In addition, adolescent compromised functioning did not mediate this relationship between early alcohol use and chronicity of adult dependence (Hypothesis 2), nor did adolescent substance use (Hypothesis 3). However, compromised functioning and substance use in adolescence predicted increased chronicity of alcohol dependence in young adulthood. Conclusions: Prevention efforts as early as the elementary grades should focus on delaying the onset of alcohol use and reducing substance use in adolescence as well as improving school functioning, reducing adolescent problem behaviors, and targeting adolescent peer networks. (J. Stud. Alcohol Drugs, 73, 379-390, 2012)

Age of first drinking and adult alcohol problems: systematic review of prospective cohort studies

“…Apart from the early study by Pedersen and Skrondal with weak control for confounding,18 the existence of effects of AFD on adult drinking and related problems is supported, but not at all strongly in the first study by Guttmannova et al 20. The opposite possibility is supported by the second study from that cohort, and those by Rossow and Kuntsche and Warner and White 19 21 22. This rather mixed evidence available from the aforementioned studies, and also the strong likelihood of publication bias indicates the need for caution in making inferences about any such effects.…”

“…Confounding is most extensively controlled for by Warner and White19 with reasonable levels of control also employed by Guttmannova et al 20 21 and to a lesser extent by Rossow and Kuntsche 22. The possibility of overadjustment should be borne in mind, where for example peer variables may lie on the causal pathway to adult outcomes as well as being implicated in earlier AFD.…”

When Is a Youth’s Debt to Society Paid? Examining the Long-Term Consequences of Juvenile Incarceration for Adult Functioning

“…Although differences in prevalences and means have been observed between intervention and control groups, prior analyses have shown few differences in the covariance structures of the groups (Catalano et al 1996; Huang et al 2001; Guttmannova et al 2012). To test possible differences in etiology between the groups, we examined a multiple-group covariance structure model constraining the covariance parameter estimates between predictors and outcomes in the study to be equal across intervention groups.…”

Association between elementary school personality and high school smoking and drinking

“…Prospectively, early consumption predicts diagnostic status and alcohol problems in later adolescence and adulthood (2,8,9). Alcohol consumption during these years is both a marker of current dysfunction and an indicator of risk for future dysfunction.…”