Development and Vulnerability Factors in Adolescent Alcohol Use

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Variations in adolescent drinking

Alcohol use behaviors vary by several sociodemographic characteristics, including ethnicity and gender, during adolescence.5Table 1 provides estimates of 30-day alcohol use and binge drinking and the age of first use for the 3 largest US ethnic groups. According to the 2007 NSDUH, the prevalence of 30-day alcohol use and binge drinking was highest for whites, followed by Hispanics and then blacks. Relative to blacks, Hispanics and whites had somewhat earlier ages of drinking onset. Gender

Family History of Alcoholism

A variety of family pedigree, twin, and adoption studies have provided significant evidence of an increased risk for developing alcohol problems when a biologic parent is affected. The nature of the risk due to a family history of alcoholism has been grouped into genetic and environmental factors.10, 13 Although the proportion of the risk for developing alcohol dependence determined by either environmental or genetic factors has not been conclusively determined, it seems that genetic factors

The deviance prone model

A single vulnerability factor may be insufficient to precipitate problematic alcohol involvement in an adolescent. More likely, multiple factors act synergistically to increase the probability of an adolescent developing alcohol problems. A variety of different theoretical models, using the risk factors cited earlier, have been proposed over time to explain the initiation and development of alcohol use and problems during adolescence. Typically, these models include a parental history of

Summary

This article demonstrates that alcohol use typically starts in early adolescence and increases with age into late adolescence and young adulthood. Ethnic and gender differences and different trajectories of alcohol use have been observed in large national epidemiologic samples. However, most adolescents drink at low-risk levels and mature out of risky drinking patterns during their mid-20s. Several putative susceptibility factors (ie, family or parental alcoholism, behavioral undercontrol,

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    This work was supported by NIAAA Grant No. P60AA03510.

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