Alcohol use is associated with the leading causes of death and injury among adolescents, and risk for health-compromising outcomes increases dramatically as alcohol involvement escalates. Increasingly, therefore, investigators have begun to examine factors involved in the move from adolescent alcohol use to abuse and dependence. In this regard, it has been suggested that whereas socialization influences uniquely predict alcohol use, psychopathology predicts alcohol-related problems over and above level of consumption. Since alcohol problems require some level of drinking, a revised version of this hypothesis contends that alcohol use mediates the relationship between risk factors and problem alcohol use. As intuitive as these hypotheses are, it is possible that common psychosocial factors predict both alcohol use and alcohol problems, and that the relationship between use and problems is spurious. The purpose of this prospective study was to compare three alternative models of the differential prediction of adolescent alcohol use and use-related adverse consequences. Self-report survey data were collected from 1,059 middle adolescent boys (N=506) and girls (N=553). The final model, derived from a series of nested structural equation models, showed that two variables, male gender and peer alcohol use, predicted increased drinking over time. Several additional variables (e.g., impulsivity) prospectively predicted change in alcohol consumption. Importantly, once common predictors of the two outcomes were accounted for, use was not directly related to alcohol problems. These findings suggest that effective secondary interventions that target youth at risk for alcohol problems and disorders will be multifaceted and multilevel in orientation.
Learning Objectives: Learning Objectives needed
Keywords: Adolescents, Alcohol
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.