Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri-Columbia, Midwest Alcoholism Research Center, Columbia, MO, USA.
J Abnorm Psychol. 2012 May;121(2):511-23. doi: 10.1037/a0026027. Epub 2011 Nov 7.
Epidemiological studies have consistently demonstrated that heavy alcohol use and alcohol dependence (AD) tend to increase in adolescence and emerging adulthood and then show a large decline in the late 20s, a phenomenon called maturing out. This decline has been explained as an effect of "role incompatibility" in which involvement in new roles and activities interferes with a heavy drinking lifestyle. However, maturing out has been conceived mostly as a decrease in offset, with little attention paid to reductions in new onset or recurrence across decades of life. Moreover, although role incompatibility processes have been studied with young samples, little is known about the effect of life transitions (e.g., marriage, parenthood, changes in employment status) on AD later in life and whether similar effects are observed. Using longitudinal data from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions, a nationally representative epidemiologic survey, we examined the patterns of stability and change in AD across the life span and the differential effect of life transitions on AD across different age strata. Results showed that persistence of AD tended to increase with age, although not dramatically, and that onset and recurrence tended to decrease with age. Moreover, the effects of life transitions on the course of AD varied across the life span and were different for men and women. These results indicate that life transitions differentially affect the patterns of stability and change in younger versus older people, have a different impact for men and women, and highlight the need to consider the unique aspects of each stage of adult development on the course of AD.
流行病学研究一致表明，酗酒和酒精依赖（AD）在青少年和成年早期趋于增加，然后在 20 多岁后期大幅下降，这种现象称为成熟消退。这种下降被解释为“角色不兼容”的影响，即参与新角色和活动会干扰酗酒的生活方式。然而，成熟消退主要被视为抵消的减少，而很少关注数十年生命中新增病例或复发的减少。此外，尽管已经对年轻样本进行了角色不兼容过程的研究，但对于生活转变（例如婚姻、为人父母、就业状况变化）对晚年 AD 的影响知之甚少，也不清楚是否存在类似的影响。本研究使用来自全国酒精相关情况和条件的流行病学调查（National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions）的纵向数据，这是一项具有全国代表性的流行病学调查，研究了 AD 在整个生命周期中的稳定性和变化模式，以及生活转变对不同年龄层 AD 的差异影响。结果表明，AD 的持续性随着年龄的增长而增加，尽管幅度不大，而发病和复发则随着年龄的增长而减少。此外，生活转变对 AD 病程的影响在整个生命周期中有所不同，且在男性和女性中存在差异。这些结果表明，生活转变对年轻人和老年人的稳定性和变化模式有不同的影响，对男性和女性有不同的影响，强调需要考虑成人发展每个阶段的独特方面对 AD 病程的影响。
