Early Childhood Drinking Not Linked to Family History
Updated October 21, 2014.
Child psychiatrists have found that a child's characteristics and environment are more like to affect the age at which they take their first drink than a family history of alcoholism.
The 2005 study looked at variables that may precede or predict age of first drink, with a focus on four areas: child characteristics, family demographics, family psychopathology, and child behavior problems. Surprisingly, aspects of the child and the child's environment seemed to affect their age of first drink more than family history of alcohol dependence, according to a new release.
"A number of studies have demonstrated that an early age of first drink is associated with increased rates of childhood psychiatric disorders, lowered success in school and extracurricular activities, increased criminal behavior, and lowered overall life satisfaction and productivity," said Samuel Kuperman, director of the division of child psychiatry at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics and corresponding author for the study.
"These problematic outcomes continue into adulthood, with reported increases in both alcohol-related diagnoses as well as non alcohol-related problems of increased rates of psychiatric diagnoses, poorer physical health, less stability of employment and committed relationships, and increased criminal behavior."
"Yet the relationship between an early age of first drink and later problems is not one of "cause and effect," said Stephan Arndt, a professor in psychiatry at the Carver College of Medicine at the University of Iowa.
"The relationship between drinking early in adolescence and later negative outcomes in drinking is a simple observed correlation," observed Arndt, also with the Iowa Consortium for Substance Abuse Research.
"It does not mean that an adolescent who has their first drink early will necessarily have a negative outcome and, as Dr. Kuperman and his colleagues point out, many adolescents who drink early will drink normally in later years. So while age of first drink seems to be correlated with problem drinking, we do not know how it fits into the process that leads to problem drinking."
The study authors looked at two groups of children (all ages 7 to 17) -- those from families with a high occurrence of alcohol dependence, and those from families without that familial history. Multiple analyses were performed to determine which variables contributed the most to predicted age of first drink.
Their findings showed that child and environmental factors are stronger predictors of age of first drink than family history of alcohol dependence.
"I was not surprised to see that the child and environmental factors were stronger predictors of age of first drink than family history," said Arndt. "Environment and how the child reacts to his/her environment are clearly more important determinants of age of first drink and, possibly, negative outcomes from alcohol. Culture also plays a large role.
"While there is a small contribution to the prediction of age of first drink based on the number of adult siblings with alcohol dependence," agreed Kuperman, "I believe this actually supports the belief that genetic loading for alcohol dependence does not per se contribute to early age of first drink. Having many siblings with alcohol dependence may somehow represent an environment conducive to early drinking."
Source: The study was published in the October 2005 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.
Child psychiatrists have found that a child's characteristics and environment are more like to affect the age at which they take their first drink than a family history of alcoholism.
The 2005 study looked at variables that may precede or predict age of first drink, with a focus on four areas: child characteristics, family demographics, family psychopathology, and child behavior problems. Surprisingly, aspects of the child and the child's environment seemed to affect their age of first drink more than family history of alcohol dependence, according to a new release.
"A number of studies have demonstrated that an early age of first drink is associated with increased rates of childhood psychiatric disorders, lowered success in school and extracurricular activities, increased criminal behavior, and lowered overall life satisfaction and productivity," said Samuel Kuperman, director of the division of child psychiatry at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics and corresponding author for the study.
"These problematic outcomes continue into adulthood, with reported increases in both alcohol-related diagnoses as well as non alcohol-related problems of increased rates of psychiatric diagnoses, poorer physical health, less stability of employment and committed relationships, and increased criminal behavior."
"Yet the relationship between an early age of first drink and later problems is not one of "cause and effect," said Stephan Arndt, a professor in psychiatry at the Carver College of Medicine at the University of Iowa.
"The relationship between drinking early in adolescence and later negative outcomes in drinking is a simple observed correlation," observed Arndt, also with the Iowa Consortium for Substance Abuse Research.
"It does not mean that an adolescent who has their first drink early will necessarily have a negative outcome and, as Dr. Kuperman and his colleagues point out, many adolescents who drink early will drink normally in later years. So while age of first drink seems to be correlated with problem drinking, we do not know how it fits into the process that leads to problem drinking."
Complicated Relationships
"Complicating the relationship of early age of first drink to later negative outcomes is the fact that many of the risk factors for early age of first drink may themselves be directly related to these same negative outcomes," added Kuperman. "The goal of this study is to begin to untangle the complicated relationships between these risk factors, which we have grouped together into four domains, and early age of first drink. Specifically, we examined whether age of first drink can be predicted better by the total number of risk factors or by the existence of a specific type of risk factor."The study authors looked at two groups of children (all ages 7 to 17) -- those from families with a high occurrence of alcohol dependence, and those from families without that familial history. Multiple analyses were performed to determine which variables contributed the most to predicted age of first drink.
Their findings showed that child and environmental factors are stronger predictors of age of first drink than family history of alcohol dependence.
Environment Strong Predictor
"Three variables explained 45 percent of the model variance," said Kuperman. "Age at interview accounted for 38.3 percent, conduct scale score accounted for 6.2 percent, and the number of alcohol-dependent adult siblings accounted for 0.5 percent. No family history measures of alcohol dependence or antisocial personality disorder were contributory to the prediction model for age of first drink.""I was not surprised to see that the child and environmental factors were stronger predictors of age of first drink than family history," said Arndt. "Environment and how the child reacts to his/her environment are clearly more important determinants of age of first drink and, possibly, negative outcomes from alcohol. Culture also plays a large role.
Genetics Interact With Evironment
"While there may be genetic components operating on drinking behavior, these seem to only be related to level of risk and ultimately must interact with the environment.""While there is a small contribution to the prediction of age of first drink based on the number of adult siblings with alcohol dependence," agreed Kuperman, "I believe this actually supports the belief that genetic loading for alcohol dependence does not per se contribute to early age of first drink. Having many siblings with alcohol dependence may somehow represent an environment conducive to early drinking."
Source: The study was published in the October 2005 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.
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