CHILDHOOD PREDICTORS OF ALCHOLISM AND VIOLENCE

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APPLICANT'S ABSTRACT: This is a competing continuation application which was originally made in response to an RFA on Alcohol and Youth. Most previous psychophysiological research on alcoholism and violence is limited by the fact that it is cross-sectional, and not longitudinal. To address this critical gap in the literature, we are conducting a prospective, longitudinal study of alcoholism and antisocial behavior. Two overarching hypotheses will be tested: 1) the non-antisocial alcoholics show autonomic and central nervous system over arousal and 2) that antisocial alcoholics show autonomic and central nervous system under arousal. Measures of skin conductance and heart rate arousal and orienting were acquired in 1972 on a cohort of 1,795 three-year-old Mauritian children. Males and females are equally represented, while Hindus, Muslims, Creoles, and Chinese are contained in the sample in proportion to their representation on the island. At age 11 years, these measures were repeated, while additional data on resting EEG and event-related potentials were collected. We are currently conducting diagnostic interviews on all the subjects who are now aged 28 years in order to ascertain their alcoholism diagnoses and other Axis I and Axis II disorders. In addition, both self-report and official measures of antisocial and violent behavior, which have recently been collected in a study funded by NIMH, will be available on all subjects. These diagnostic and antisocial behavior outcome measures will then be related to psychophysiological measures obtained at ages 3 and 11 years. Our new pilot work using the SCID has established a base rate of 15.0% alcohol abuse, slightly higher than the 13.5% we had previously estimated with MAST data. We are consequently applying for funds to complete the study. Due to the sound collection of psychophysiological measures taken in early childhood on an extensive cohort which includes four ethnic groups and females, it is felt that this project offers a unique opportunity to assess early psychophysiological risk factors for alcoholism and violence, and to explore ethnic, religious, and gender effects. Such research has in turn the potential to address some of the issues raised in recent RFAs on alcoholism pertaining to youth, violence, and minorities.