SAFETYLIT WEEKLY UPDATE

We compile citations and summaries of about 400 new articles every week.
RSS Feed

HELP: Tutorials | FAQ
CONTACT US: Contact info

Search Results

Journal Article

Citation

Staff J, Maggs JL, Bucci R, Mongilio J. J. Stud. Alcohol Drugs 2019; 80(4): 472-479.

Affiliation

Department of Sociology and Criminology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Alcohol Research Documentation, Inc., Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

31495385

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Proximal changes in externalizing behaviors before and after children and early adolescents have their first alcoholic drink and first heavy drinking episode are examined using intergenerational, prospective data from the ongoing U.K. national Millennium Cohort Study (10,529 child-parent pairs followed over 35,406 occasions).

METHOD: We examined how within-person changes in externalizing behaviors (based on parental reports on the Strengths and Difficulties scale when children were modal ages 5, 7, 11, and 14 years) follow children's age at first alcoholic drink (AFD) and age at first heavy drinking (AFHD), based on confidential child self-reports at ages 11 and 14 years. Analyses controlled for child age, time-varying parent-level confounders (parental education and alcohol abstention), and time-stable selection factors.

RESULTS: Estimates from fixed-effects Poisson models revealed a 5% increase in the expected count of externalizing behaviors after children have their first alcoholic drink (incidence rate ratio [IRR] = 1.05, 95% CI [1.03, 1.07]), and a 13% increase after first drinking heavily (IRR = 1.13, 95% CI [1.09, 1.18]), independent of key time-varying and all time-stable individual differences.

CONCLUSIONS: Early AFHD and unobserved time-stable selection factors partially explain relationships between early drinking and problem behaviors, but early AFD continues to be a significant predictor of externalizing behavior. Although prevention efforts should continue to discourage heavy drinking in childhood and early adolescence, the results suggest that both AFHD and AFD should be delayed.


Language: en

NEW SEARCH


All SafetyLit records are available for automatic download to Zotero & Mendeley
Print