Parent and Peer Influences on Alcohol Use Problems: A Genetically Informed Study

描述（由申请人提供）：过去的研究发现，父母对青少年活动的了解、同伴酒精使用和后来的酒精使用障碍（AUDs）之间存在显著的关系。然而，这些关系必须在遗传风险的背景下考虑。也就是说，青少年的基因风险可能会影响照顾者对青少年生活的了解程度，青少年对同伴群体的选择，以及青少年出现酒精问题的可能性。然而，除了遗传风险之外，父母知识和同伴影响的影响还没有得到很好的理解。很少有研究测试了父母的知识和同伴的影响，而不是遗传风险评分，这解释了结果的实质性差异。过去的研究也表明，环境的影响可能会根据遗传风险的水平而变化，但迄今为止还没有研究在广泛的遗传风险评分的不同水平上检验父母知识、同伴酒精使用和后代酒精问题之间的关系。拟议的研究将利用一项正在进行的跨越三代的家族酗酒纵向研究的数据来解决这些问题。我将创建广泛的遗传风险评分，通过使用几种遗传变异（例如DRD2， DAT1， GABRA1和OPRM1），可以解释新兴/年轻成人酒精使用问题的更大比例的差异。该研究将检验父母知识和同伴饮酒对基因-环境共变（即青少年遗传风险与父母知识之间的关系，以及青少年遗传风险与同伴饮酒之间的关系）的影响，并将确定父母知识、同伴饮酒和酒精问题之间的关系是否对处于特定遗传风险水平（即基因-环境相互作用）的青少年更强。提出的研究提供了一个很好的机会，可以更好地了解父母知识、同伴饮酒和遗传风险对新出现/年轻成人饮酒问题的相对影响，并为预防未成年人饮酒提供启示。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Past research has found significant relations among parental knowledge about adolescents' activities, peer alcohol use, and later alcohol use disorders (AUDs). However, these relations must be considered in the context of genetic risk. That is, an adolescent's genetic risk for disinhibited behavior may affect both the amount of knowledge that caregivers have about the adolescent's life, the adolescent's choice of peer group, and the adolescent's likelihood of developing alcohol problems. However, the effects of parental knowledge and peer influences over and above genetic risk are not well-understood. Few studies have tested parental knowledge and peer influences over and above genetic risk scores that explain substantial variance in the outcomes. Past research also suggests that the effect of environment may vary according to level of genetic risk, but no study to date has examined the relations among parental knowledge, peer alcohol use, and offspring alcohol problems at different levels of a broad genetic risk score. The proposed study will address these questions using data taken from an ongoing longitudinal study of familial alcoholism spanning three generations. I will create broad genetic risk scores that may explain larger proportions of the variance in emerging/young adult alcohol use problems by utilizing several genetic variants (e.g. DRD2, DAT1, GABRA1, and OPRM1). The study will examine the influences of parental knowledge and peer alcohol use over and above gene-environment covariation (i.e., the relations between adolescent genetic risk and parental knowledge, and adolescent genetic risk and peer alcohol use) and will determine whether the relations among parental knowledge, peer alcohol use, and alcohol problems are stronger for adolescents at particular levels of genetic risk (i.e. gene-environment interaction). The proposed study provides an excellent opportunity to better understand the relative influences of parental knowledge, peer alcohol use, and genetic risk on emerging/young adult alcohol use problems and to draw implications for the prevention of underage drinking. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The proposed research has important public health implications, because of the high prevalence of alcohol disorders and their associated costs. It is important to understand the unique effects of parental knowledge and peer alcohol use over and above correlated genetic risk and the extent to which these influences interact with genetic risk to predict alcohol use problems. A better understanding of the unique effects of parental knowledge and peer influence on alcohol use problems, and their interaction with genetic risk will inform prevention and intervention programs aimed at decreasing risk for such problems.