Adolescent Alcohol Use and Young Adult Psychosocial Functioning

描述（由申请人提供）：尽管未成年人饮酒是非法的，但青少年时期饮酒在我们的社会中很普遍。许多研究表明，早期开始饮酒与青春期后期和成年期的酒精问题之间存在正相关。事实上，推迟饮酒开始的年龄是大多数旨在防止青少年饮酒的计划和政策的关键目标。以前研究这个问题的工作的一个局限性是，很少有研究评估预测早期酒精使用发作的关键风险因素，随着时间的推移使用的升级，以及在青春期和青年期的酒精问题，以及风险因素和饮酒模式之间的潜在相互关系。此外，特定类别的风险因素可能有助于区分规范的饮酒模式和更有问题的饮酒模式的发展。在一个有利于饮酒的社会环境中进入青春期可能预示着发病时间较早和更频繁的饮酒，但当存在其他心理动机时，如适应能力差和自我控制能力差，这可能导致醉酒，酗酒和饮酒模式在向年轻成年人过渡期间迅速升级。此外，很少有人知道的调解机制，通过发病的时间，模式的早期饮酒，随着时间的推移，增加的速度，和早期的风险因素可能会导致酒精问题的年轻人。鉴于酒精使用的流行病学和病因学方面存在显著的性别差异，需要开展更多的工作，重点关注早期酒精使用的长期影响方面的性别差异。同样重要的是，要确定早期和不断升级的酒精使用的影响有多普遍，在以后的饮酒问题和受损的社会心理功能，在社会，职业，法律的，和金融领域。这项拟议的研究旨在研究不同类别的风险因素如何影响青春期酒精使用的初始模式和升级，以确定那些最有可能在向青年期过渡期间出现后续酒精和毒品问题以及相关困难的人。]这将通过对一项大型药物滥用预防试验的13年纵向数据集进行二级数据分析来实现。该数据集的独特之处在于，它包含了从青春期到青年期的个体之间丰富的变量。除了自我报告的数据，我们还将检查以前从纽约州机动车记录部门收集的危险和受损驾驶结果。最终，预计这些发现将通过确定使年轻人处于后期酒精相关问题风险中的关键指标和行为模式来改善公共健康，然后可以用来确定可以从有针对性的酒精预防计划中受益最多的个人。 公共卫生相关性：拟议的研究的一个中心目标是研究青春期早期饮酒如何影响随后的酒精和药物使用/滥用，使用的负面后果，相关的风险行为，以及其他指标的心理社会调整在青春期后期和过渡到年轻的成年。这将通过对来自一项更大规模的药物滥用预防试验的对照组参与者进行二级数据分析来实现，该试验评估了从青春期早期到青年期的13年跨度的参与者。预计这些发现将通过确定关键指标和行为模式来改善公共健康，这些指标和行为模式使年轻人面临后期酒精相关问题和其他问题的风险，从而可以用于确定那些可以从有针对性的酒精预防或治疗计划中受益最多的人。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Alcohol use during adolescence is prevalent in our society, despite the fact that alcohol consumption for minors is illegal. Numerous studies have demonstrated a positive association between early age of onset of alcohol use and alcohol problems in later adolescence and adulthood. In fact, delaying the age of drinking onset is a key goal of most programs and policies designed to prevent adolescent alcohol use. A limitation of previous work examining this issue is that few studies have assessed critical risk factors that predict early alcohol use onset, escalation of use over time, and later alcohol problems over the course of adolescence and young adulthood and the potential reciprocal relationships among risk factors and drinking patterns. Furthermore, specific categories of risk factors may help distinguish normative drinking patterns and the development of more problematic drinking patterns. Entering adolescence in a social environment conducive to drinking may predict early timing of onset and more frequent drinking, but when additional psychological motives such as poor adjustment and poor self-control are present, this may lead to drunkenness, binge drinking and drinking patterns that escalate rapidly during the transition to young adulthood. Furthermore, little is known about the mediating mechanisms through which timing of onset, patterns of early alcohol use, rate of increase over time, and early risk factors may contribute to alcohol problems among young adults. More work is needed that focuses on gender differences in the long-term impact of early alcohol use, given the significant gender differences in the epidemiology and etiology of alcohol use. It is also important to determine how pervasive the effects of early and escalating alcohol use are in terms of later drinking problems and impaired psychosocial functioning in social, occupational, legal, and financial domains. The proposed study aims to examine how different categories of risk factors affect initial patterns and escalation of alcohol use during adolescence in order to identify those individuals most likely to develop subsequent alcohol and drug problems and related difficulties during the transition to young adulthood.] This will be accomplished via secondary data analyses of a 13-year longitudinal dataset from a larger drug abuse prevention trial. The dataset is unique in that it contains a rich array of variables among individuals followed from adolescence into young adulthood. In addition to self-report data, we will examine risky and impaired driving outcomes that were previously collected from New York State Department of Motor Vehicle records. Ultimately, it is anticipated that these findings will improve public health by identifying key indicators and behavior patterns that place young people at risk for later alcohol- related problems, which can then be used to identify individuals who could benefit most from targeted alcohol prevention programs. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: A central goal of the proposed study is to examine how alcohol use during early adolescence affects subsequent alcohol and drug use/abuse, negative consequences of use, related risk behaviors, and other indicators of psychosocial adjustment during late adolescence and the transition to young adulthood. This will be accomplished via secondary data analyses of control group participants from a larger drug abuse prevention trial that assessed participants over a 13-year span from early adolescence to young adulthood. It is anticipated that the findings will improve public health by identifying key indicators and behavior patterns that place young people at risk for later alcohol-related and other problems, which can in turn be used to identify those individuals who could benefit most from targeted alcohol prevention or treatment programs.