Adolescent alcohol use is predicted by childhood temperament factors before age 5, with mediation through personality and peers.

BACKGROUND Very few studies chart developmental pathways from early childhood to adolescent alcohol-related outcomes. We test whether measures of temperament collected from mothers at multiple assessments from 6 months through 5 years predict alcohol-related outcomes in mid-adolescence, the developmental pathways that mediate these effects, and whether there are gender differences in pathways of risk. METHODS Structural models were fit to longitudinal data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, an epidemiological sample of pregnant women with delivery dates between April 1991 and December 1992, with children followed longitudinally. Temperamental characteristics were assessed at 6 time points from 6 to 69 months of age. Alcohol use and problems were assessed at age 15.5. Analyses here utilize data from 6,504 boys and 6,143 girls. RESULTS Childhood temperament prior to age 5 predicted adolescent alcohol use and problems at age 15.5 years, even after controlling for socio-demographic factors and parental alcohol problems. In both boys and girls, 2 largely uncorrelated and distinct temperament styles-children who were rated as having consistent emotional and conduct difficulties through age 5, and children who were rated as consistently sociable through age 5-both showed elevated rates of alcohol problems at age 15.5, but via different mediational pathways. In both genders, the association between emotional and conduct difficulties and alcohol problems was mediated through reduced conscientiousness and lower emotional stability. The association between sociability and alcohol problems was mediated through increased extraversion and sensation-seeking for both genders. Boys also showed mediation for sociability and alcohol outcomes through friendship characteristics, and girls through lower conscientiousness and reduced emotional stability. CONCLUSIONS Our findings support multiple pathways to alcohol consumption and problems in adolescence. Some of these pathways are shared in boys and girls, while other risk factors are more salient in one gender or the other.

[1]  R. Zucker.  Alcohol Use and the Alcohol Use Disorders: A Developmental‐Biopsychosocial Systems Formulation Covering the Life Course , 2015 .

[2]  R. Araya,et al.  Early life socio-economic position and later alcohol use: birth cohort study , 2012, Addiction.

[3]  D. Lawlor,et al.  Cohort Profile: The ‘Children of the 90s’—the index offspring of the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children , 2012, International journal of epidemiology.

[4]  T. Bjarnason,et al.  The 2011 ESPAD report: substance use among students in 36 European countries. , 2012 .

[5]  R. Araya,et al.  Adolescent Alcohol and Tobacco Use and Early Socioeconomic Position: The ALSPAC Birth Cohort , 2011, Pediatrics.

[6]  K. Sher,et al.  The Multiple, Distinct Ways that Personality Contributes to Alcohol Use Disorders. , 2010, Social and personality psychology compass.

[7]  G. S. Pettit,et al.  A Dynamic Cascade Model of the Development of Substance - Use Onset , 2009 .

[8]  J. Nigg,et al.  Temperament Pathways to Childhood Disruptive Behavior and Adolescent Substance Abuse: Testing a Cascade Model , 2009, Journal of abnormal child psychology.

[9]  Jane D. Brown,et al.  In this Issue , 2012, Mucosal Immunology.

[10]  S. Roesch,et al.  A Test of the Factor Structure Equivalence of the 50-Item IPIP Five-Factor Model Measure Across Gender and Ethnic Groups , 2008, Journal of personality assessment.

[11]  R. Zucker.  Anticipating problem alcohol use developmentally from childhood into middle adulthood: what have we learned? , 2008, Addiction.

[12]  Megan E. Patrick,et al.  Childhood and adolescent predictors of alcohol use and problems in adolescence and adulthood in the National Child Development Study. , 2008, Addiction.

[13]  W. Collins,et al.  Childhood and adolescent predictors of heavy drinking and alcohol use disorders in early adulthood: a longitudinal developmental analysis. , 2008, Addiction.

[14]  L. R. Huesmann,et al.  Childhood and adolescent predictors of early and middle adulthood alcohol use and problem drinking: the Columbia County Longitudinal Study. , 2008, Addiction.

[15]  L. Pulkkinen,et al.  A developmental approach to alcohol drinking behaviour in adulthood: a follow-up study from age 8 to age 42. , 2008, Addiction.

[16]  A. Masten,et al.  Early Developmental Processes and the Continuity of Risk for Underage Drinking and Problem Drinking , 2008, Pediatrics.

[17]  E. Turkheimer,et al.  Gene-Environment Correlation and Interaction in Peer Effects on Adolescent Alcohol and Tobacco Use , 2008, Behavior genetics.

[18]  D. Flora,et al.  Defining risk heterogeneity for internalizing symptoms among children of alcoholic parents , 2008, Development and Psychopathology.

[19]  Jaakko Kaprio,et al.  Gender differences in friends' influences on adolescent drinking: a genetic epidemiological study. , 2007, Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research.

[20]  S. Florescu,et al.  Psychosocial correlates of substance use in adolescence: a cross-national study in six European countries. , 2007, Drug and alcohol dependence.

[21]  Kristopher J Preacher,et al.  SPSS and SAS procedures for estimating indirect effects in simple mediation models , 2004, Behavior research methods, instruments, & computers : a journal of the Psychonomic Society, Inc.

[22]  B. Grant,et al.  Prevalence and Co-Occurrence of Substance Use Disorders and Independent Mood and Anxiety Disorders , 2004, Archives of general psychiatry.

[23]  K. Dodge,et al.  Child, Parent, and Peer Predictors of Early-Onset Substance Use: A Multisite Longitudinal Study , 2002, Journal of abnormal child psychology.

[24]  S. West,et al.  A comparison of methods to test mediation and other intervening variable effects. , 2002, Psychological methods.

[25]  R. rose.  Paths to Successful Development: How do adolescents select their friends? A behavior-genetic perspective , 2002 .

[26]  J. Kaprio,et al.  Drinking or abstaining at age 14? A genetic epidemiological study. , 2001, Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research.

[27]  Bruce Simons-Morton,et al.  Peer and Parent Influences on Smoking and Drinking among Early Adolescents , 2001, Health education & behavior : the official publication of the Society for Public Health Education.

[28]  M. Pembrey,et al.  ALSPAC--the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children. I. Study methodology. , 2001, Paediatric and perinatal epidemiology.

[29]  M. Windle.  Parental, Sibling, and Peer Influences on Adolescent Substance Use and Alcohol Problems , 2000 .

[30]  H. Fitzgerald,et al.  Developmental perspectives on risk and vulnerability in alcoholic families. , 2000, Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research.

[31]  M. Hesselbrock,et al.  A validity study of the SSAGA--a comparison with the SCAN. , 1999, Addiction.

[32]  A. Erkanli,et al.  Development of psychiatric comorbidity with substance abuse in adolescents: effects of timing and sex. , 1999, Journal of clinical child psychology.

[33]  R E Tremblay,et al.  Behavior of boys in kindergarten and the onset of substance use during adolescence. , 1997, Archives of general psychiatry.

[34]  D L Newman,et al.  Behavioral observations at age 3 years predict adult psychiatric disorders. Longitudinal evidence from a birth cohort. , 1996, Archives of general psychiatry.

[35]  M. Rutter,et al.  Use and development of the Rutter parents' and teachers' scales. , 1996 .

[36]  L. Chassin,et al.  The relation of parent alcoholism to adolescent substance use: a longitudinal follow-up study. , 1996, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[37]  Fuzhong Li,et al.  Peer ecology of male adolescent drug use , 1995, Development and Psychopathology.

[38]  J. Eddy,et al.  Family and peer influences on smoking behavior among American adolescents: an age trend. , 1995, The Journal of adolescent health : official publication of the Society for Adolescent Medicine.

[39]  J. Nurnberger,et al.  A new, semi-structured psychiatric interview for use in genetic linkage studies: a report on the reliability of the SSAGA. , 1994, Journal of studies on alcohol.

[40]  J. Arnett.  Sensation seeking: A new conceptualization and a new scale , 1994 .

[41]  J. Block,et al.  Adolescent drug use and psychological health. A longitudinal inquiry. , 1990, The American psychologist.

[42]  I. Goodyer,et al.  The Impact of Recent Undesirable Life Events on Psychiatric Disorders in Childhood and Adolescence , 1987, British Journal of Psychiatry.

[43]  C. Robert Cloninger,et al.  Neurogenetic adaptive mechanisms in alcoholism. , 1987, Science.

[44]  D. A. Kenny,et al.  The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. , 1986, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[45]  A. Buss,et al.  Temperament: Early Developing Personality Traits , 1984 .

[46]  D. A. Kenny,et al.  Process Analysis , 1981, Plastics Process Analysis, Instrumentation, and Control.

[47]  S C McDevitt,et al.  Revision of the Infant Temperament Questionnaire. , 1978, Pediatrics.

[48]  Denise B. Kandel,et al.  Similarity in Real-Life Adolescent Friendship Pairs. , 1978 .