Early Adult Outcomes of Adolescent Binge Drinking: Person- and Variable-Centered Analyses of Binge Drinking Trajectories

Abstract

Background-Many studies of the consequences of binge drinking take a variable-centered approach that may mask developmentally different trajectories. Recent studies have reported qualitatively different binge drinking trajectories in young adulthood. However, analyses of developmental trajectories of binge drinking have not been examined for an important period of drinking development: adolescence. The purpose of this study was to examine young adult outcomes of adolescent binge drinking using an approach that combines person-centered and variable-centered methods.

Different lengths of times for progressions in adolescent substance involvement

“…Behavioral indictors of pathological substance use (e.g., binging, frequency, and quantity) correlate highly with substance use-related disorders (Canagasaby & Vinson, 2005;Chen, Kandel, & Davies, 1997;Hill, White, Chung, Hawkins, & Catalano, 2000). It appears that a lower threshold of frequency and quantity of use is associated with dependence in adolescents compared to adults .…”

Decision Making and Binge Drinking: A Longitudinal Study

“…In the alcohol and drug-use literature, an abundance of studies indicate that different developmental trajectories exist for binge drinking. These studies consistently find the existence of stable-low, increasing, and stablehigh subgroups (Chassin et al, 2002;Hill et al, 2000;Tucker et al, 2003), with increasing and stable-high subgroups having a higher prevalence in college student samples (Schulenberg and Maggs, 2002). When different drinking trajectories are associated with differences in decision making, this could have consequences for the way in which prevention and intervention strategies target binge drinking, such as targeting groups with a specific binge drinking trajectory (Jackson et al, 2004).…”

Adolescent heavy episodic drinking trajectories and health in young adulthood.

“…The context and meaning of adolescent drinking, and probably its consequences, are, therefore, different from alcohol consumption in young adulthood, which is legal at age 21. Furthermore, trajectories of early heavy drinking are associated with later alcohol abuse and dependence in young adulthood as well as with numerous negative social and personal outcomes (Guo et al, 2002;Hill et al, 2000;Kandel et al, 1986;Bentler, 1987, 1988). Focusing on alcohol use during adolescence is important because it sets the stage for later alcohol misuse and health problems and, therefore, has unique implications for prevention.…”

“…Our understanding of substance use consequences is enhanced by a person-centered approach, because different trajectories of substance use in adolescence may have different consequences in young adulthood (Guo et al, 2002;Hill et al, 2000;Labouvie et al, 1991). Prior analyses of our panel data have identified distinct trajectories of alcohol use in adolescence (Guo et al, 2000(Guo et al, , 2002Hill et al, 2000).…”

“…Prior analyses of our panel data have identified distinct trajectories of alcohol use in adolescence (Guo et al, 2000(Guo et al, , 2002Hill et al, 2000). As have others (Muthén and Shedden, 1999;Schulenberg et al, 1996), Hill et al (2000) identified four types of adolescent heavy episodic drinkers: those who never or rarely drank heavily (nonheavy drinkers); those who increased their involvement in heavy episodic drinking in mid adolescence (escalators); those who began heavy drinking only in late adolescence (late onsetters); and those who engaged in high levels of heavy episodic drinking throughout the adolescent years (chronic heavy drinkers). showed that these four heavy episodic drinking trajectories had distinctly different patterns of prosocial (e.g., academic attainment and social involvement) and antisocial (e.g., depression and crime) functioning at age 21.…”