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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Michael R. Winter, MPH, Timothy Heeren, PhD, and Ralph W. Hingson, ScD, MPH. Youth Alcohol Prevention Center, Boston University School of Public Health, 715 Albany Street, 580, 3rd Floor, Boston, MA 02118-2526, 617-638-5015, mwinter@bu.edu

Objective: Early drinking onset has been associated with lifetime alcohol-related fighting. This study explored whether anti-social behavior in adolescence explains the established association between age of drinking onset and alcohol-related fighting.

Design: We used a sample of 27,324 US adults aged 18 and older who were current or former drinkers from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions. We examined bivariable associations between age of drinking onset, anti-social behavior before age 15, and ever getting into fights while or right after drinking. Multiple logistic regression models further examined whether anti-social behavior before age 15 would partially explain the association between age of drinking onset and alcohol-related fighting.

Results: Of lifetime drinkers, 8.9% reported anti-social behavior before age 15. Of those, 19.0% reported drinking onset before age 14 and 39.7% reported any lifetime alcohol-related fighting, compared to 3.6% and 9.7% among those who did not report early anti-social behavior. Controlling for demographics and measures of heavy alcohol use, respondents with drinking onset before age 14 had significantly higher odds of alcohol-related fighting than those with drinking onset at age 21+ (OR 4.3, 95% CI 3.4,5.5). This association remained significant after controlling for anti-social behavior in adolescence (OR 3.6, 95% CI 2.8,4.7).

Conclusions: People with early onset of alcohol use are at risk for both early anti-social behavior and lifetime alcohol-related fighting. After controlling for early anti-social behavior, early age of onset remains a significant risk factor for alcohol-related fighting.

Learning Objectives:

• To articulate the role of adolescent anti-social behavior in the relationship between age of drinking onset and lifetime alcohol-related fighting.

Keywords: Alcohol, Adolescent Health

Related Web page: www.bu.edu/dbin/sph/research_centers/niaaa.php

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Not Answered