King Kevin M, Chassin Laurie
Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Post Office Box 871104, Tempe, Arizona 85287-1104, USA.
J Stud Alcohol Drugs. 2007 Mar;68(2):256-65. doi: 10.15288/jsad.2007.68.256.
Previous cross-sectional research has disagreed about whether an adolescent's age of onset of alcohol use is a unique predictor of later alcohol dependence or whether it is merely a correlate of those factors that produce alcohol dependence. The current study tests this question in a longitudinal sample, and extends the literature by testing whether age of onset of alcohol and drug use predicts alcohol and drug dependence.
Data from an ongoing study of children of alcoholics and matched controls (n = 395) were collected during three annual interviews during adolescence and two 5-year follow-ups in young adulthood.
Taking a first drink of alcohol at or before age 13 was unrelated to the odds of alcohol and drug dependence when the adolescent did not also participate in early drug use or when correlated risk factors were taken into account. On the other hand, early drug use elevated the odds of drug dependence by young adulthood, even while controlling for shared risk factors.
The current study provides support for the notion that early-adolescent onset of alcohol use is a marker of risk for later dependence rather than a causal influence. Moreover, it provides evidence for the impact of early drug use on drug-substance dependence. Implications for theory and intervention are discussed.
以往的横断面研究对于青少年开始饮酒的年龄是后期酒精依赖的独特预测因素，还是仅仅是产生酒精依赖的那些因素的一个相关因素存在分歧。本研究在一个纵向样本中对这个问题进行了测试，并通过测试酒精和药物使用的起始年龄是否能预测酒精和药物依赖来扩展相关文献。
在青少年时期的三次年度访谈以及成年早期的两次为期5年的随访期间，收集了一项正在进行的针对酗酒者子女和匹配对照（n = 395）的研究数据。
当青少年没有同时过早使用毒品或在考虑相关风险因素时，在13岁及之前首次饮酒与酒精和药物依赖的几率无关。另一方面，即使在控制了共同的风险因素后，过早使用毒品也会增加成年早期药物依赖的几率。
本研究支持这样一种观点，即青少年早期开始饮酒是后期依赖风险的一个标志，而非因果影响。此外，它为过早使用毒品对药物依赖的影响提供了证据。文中讨论了其对理论和干预的启示。
