Prior Delinquency and Depression Differentially Predict Conditional Associations Between Discrete Patterns of Adolescent Religiosity and Adult Alcohol Use Patterns

Patterns of bi-directional relations across alcohol use, religiosity, and self-control in adolescent girls

Examining predictors of alcohol use among adolescent girls is increasingly important to enhance prevention efforts, given that the gender gap in alcohol use is steadily closing. While both religiosity and self-control have been independently associated with decreased alcohol use, little research has explored 1) whether religiosity and self-control are reciprocally related and 2) whether the reciprocal association between these constructs may indicate different patterns in the development of alcohol use. As such, this study examined whether there are multiple patterns of reciprocal relationships across religiosity, self-control, and alcohol use among adolescent girls. Latent variable mixture modeling was combined with an autoregressive cross-lagged panel model to identify discrete, prototypical patterns of longitudinal associations (i.e., subgroups) across religiosity, self-control, and alcohol use among 2,122 girls ages 13-17. Psychosocial covariates (e.g., conduct problems) were examined as predictors of each subgroup. Two subgroups were identified. Self-control was associated with reduced alcohol use in both the majority (87.56% of the sample) and minority (12.44% of the sample) subgroups, but only the majority subgroup also demonstrated associations between religiosity, self-control, and alcohol use. Religiosity may predict lower alcohol use in a majority of adolescent girls but this association may not be present among all girls, suggesting that there is a qualitative difference in how religiosity is associated with self-control and alcohol use between subgroups. Results also suggest that higher levels of conduct problems may predict which girls are more likely to demonstrate associations between only self-control and alcohol use, and demonstrate no significant associations with religiosity.

The association between early life mental health and alcohol use behaviours in adulthood: A systematic review

This systematic review aims to summarise current evidence on the association between early life mental health and alcohol use behaviours in adulthood. Peer-reviewed publications were located by searching EMBASE, Medline, PsycINFO, and the ISI Web of Science up to 31 October 2018. Prospective longitudinal studies reporting associations between externalising problems (EXT), internalising problems (INT), depression, anxiety before age 18, and alcohol use behaviours (alcohol consumption, heavy/problematic drinking, alcohol use disorder) after age 18 were included. After screening 17259 articles, 36 articles met the inclusion criteria. Information extracted included strength of associations, age when mental health and alcohol use behaviours were measured, sex differences in the association, and other sample characteristics. 103 tests in 23 articles were identified on the externalising domain and 135 tests in 26 articles on the internalising domain. 37 out of 103 tests reported positive associations between EXT and alcohol use behaviours. The likelihood of observing positive associations was higher for more severe alcohol use outcomes, but this trend disappeared among high-quality studies. Findings on associations between internalising domain and alcohol use varied across their subtypes. INT tended to be negatively associated with alcohol consumption but positively associated with more severe outcomes (heavy/problematic drinking, alcohol use disorder). Depression tended to be positively associated with alcohol outcomes, while no clear association between anxiety and alcohol outcomes was evident. Variation of the association across developmental timing, sex, culture, historical period was explored where appropriate. Great heterogeneity in the current literature calls for greater attention to view the relationship developmentally.

Stressful life events influence transitions among latent classes of alcohol use

Stressful life events (SLEs) have been associated with an increased risk of heavy drinking, suggesting individuals may use alcohol to cope with negative life events. However, little research has explored the extent to which SLEs have different effects on later alcohol use based on one's current alcohol use pattern. We replicated prototypical patterns of alcohol use via latent class analysis at Waves 2, 3, and 4 of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (n = 4,569). Latent transition analysis was then used to examine the extent to which SLEs influenced the likelihood of stability or change in class membership from adolescence to early adulthood. Results suggested that adolescents were more likely to transition into different patterns of alcohol use as they entered early adulthood but were more likely to retain the same drinking pattern once in early adulthood. Among those who typically abstained, experiencing SLEs was associated with greater odds of transitioning to heavier drinking or problematic patterns of alcohol use. However, among those who had heavy or problematic alcohol use patterns, SLEs were associated with greater odds of decreasing alcohol use to either heavy or abstaining levels. Results suggest those who previously abstained may begin to use alcohol as a coping mechanism following stressful events, whereas those who drank heavily may decrease or abstain from alcohol use following life stress as a means of enacting positive life changes. The results encourage further study into factors that differentiate changes in alcohol use among light drinkers following SLEs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).