Relationship of Age of First Drink to Child Behavioral Problems and Family Psychopathology Corresponding Author

Background: An early age of first drink (AFD) has been implicated in a variety of negative outcomes in adolescence and early adulthood. Studies involving AFD have often focused on these negative outcomes, but rarely have addressed the additional presence of: existing child problematic behavioral symptoms, multigenerational familial alcohol dependence (AD), or multigenerational familial antisocial personality disorder (ASPD). Methods: Using data from a multi-center genetic study on alcoholism, we investigated the differences between two groups of children, one coming from families heavily loaded for alcohol dependence and the other from population controls. A multilevel, multi-step regression model using child characteristics (gender and years of alcohol exposure), family characteristics (income, living arrangement, parental AD, parental ASPD, adult siblings with AD or ASPD, and extended family members with either AD or ASPD) and child problematic behavior variables (grade retention, externalizing and internalizing behavioral scale scores, and substance use) was performed to predict age of first drink. Results: The final model indicated that 4 variables contributed significantly to the model’s ability to predict age of first drink. The most important variable was “years of alcohol exposure” which explained 43.5% of the variance, followed by “marijuana use” (2.7% of the variance), “maternal AD” (2.2% of the variance), and “paternal ASPD” (2.1% of the variance). Family density of AD (or ASPD) did not contribute to the model. Conclusions: The study suggests that age of first drink, while related to maternal AD, is not as strongly associated with a “loaded” family history of alcohol dependence (or ASPD) as is problematic alcohol use. Other potential factors such as peer influences or accessibility of alcohol may play a stronger role in the initiation of alcohol use.