Performance of the Self‐Report of the Effects of Alcohol Questionnaire Across Sexes and Generations

Abstract

Background: Low level of responses (low LRs) to alcohol established using the Self-Report of the Effects of Alcohol (SRE) questionnaire are genetically influenced phenotypes related to heavy drinking and alcohol problems. To date, most studies using SREs focused on scores for the number of drinks needed for effects across the first 5 times of drinking (SRE-5), and few evaluated scores that also included the prior 3 months and heaviest drinking periods (SRE-T). This paper evaluates characteristics of SRE-5 and SRE-T within and across generations.Methods: Data were extracted from 407 participants across 2 generations of 107 families in the San Diego Prospective Study (SDPS). Pearson's product-moment correlations for SRE-5 and SRE-T were determined across first-degree relatives both within and across generations and sexes, as well as correlations of each measure to maximum drinking quantities and alcohol problems.Results: Responding to 4 hypotheses, first the analyses demonstrated significant within-generation positive correlations for both SRE measures across brother-brother and sister-sister pairs as well as cross-generation correlations for fathers and sons, although correlations for mothers and daughters were not robust. Second, both SRE-5 and SRE-T correlated with maximum drinks and alcohol problems for both sexes and both generations. Third, within parental and offspring generations SRE-T correlated more robustly than SRE-5 to maximum drinks and alcohol problems. Fourth, across generations SRE values for sons were more closely related to drinking quantities and problems than for their fathers, but the mother-daughter SRE relationships to adverse alcohol characteristics were not different.Conclusions: Both the SRE-5 and SRE-T offered useful information about propensities toward heavier drinking and alcohol problems in SDPS families. Correlations with adverse alcohol outcomes were greater for the more broad-based SRE-T, but both scores appeared to be genetically influenced and continue to operate in a robust manner in both generations of these families.

Predictors of Increases in Alcohol Problems and Alcohol Use Disorders in Offspring in the San Diego Prospective Study

“…One example is our San Diego Prospective Study (SDPS) protocol that followed original 20-year-old subjects (probands who at baseline were drinkers but did not at the time fulfill AUD criteria) and their offspring with repeated evaluations over 35 years. The results of the most recent evaluation demonstrated that drinking 18-year old and older offspring of the original probands demonstrated higher rates of alcohol problems and AUDs than their fathers, increases that are similar to those reported in NESARC and other national surveys (Schuckit et al, 2019). That increase in adverse alcohol outcomes in the SDPS offspring along with the fact that the same interview and questionnaires were used in both generations offers an opportunity to look for differences across generations that might have contributed to the increase in alcohol problems in the offspring.…”

The Search for Contributors to Low Rates of Recognition of Paternal Alcohol Use Disorders in Offspring From the San Diego Prospective Study

“…For example, in 1978 the SDPS used one offspring informant per family to identify FH-positive and FH-negative drinking but not yet alcoholic young adult participants. This relatively quick and inexpensive application of the FHM helped identify a subset of families with AUDs carrying the low response to alcohol as a familial potential risk factor for future heavy drinking in the young adult probands themselves (Schuckit and Gold, 1988) and a phenotype that turned out to be a good predictor of future alcohol problems (e.g., Schuckit et al, 2019a;Schuckit et al, 2019b). Establishing the validity of the original findings took decades of work that led to the development of a prevention approach that was successful in mitigating the impact of a low LR on heavy drinking and alcoholic blackouts in college students (Schuckit et al, 2016a(Schuckit et al, , 2017.…”

“…In addition to SSAGA interviews and personality questionnaires, all probands and drinking offspring also reported their usual intensity of response to alcohol using the retrospective Self-Report of the Effects of Alcohol (SRE) questionnaire (Schuckit, 2018;Schuckit et al, 2019a;Schuckit et al, 2016a;Schuckit et al, 2019b), which is the only LR to alcohol measure available in both generations. This 12-item instrument records the average number of standard drinks required for up to 4 effects during the approximate first 5 times of drinking (SRE-5), their period of heaviest alcohol intake, and the 3 most recent drinking months.…”

“…The total SRE (SRE-T) score was the average drinks needed for effects across all 3 timeframes. The 4 possible effects included drinks required to: actually experience first alcohol effects, slurring speech, develop unsteadiness of walking, and unwanted falling asleep, with the greater the number of drinks for effects the lower the level of response, or sensitivity, per drink (Daeppen et al, 2000;Ray et al, 2010;Schuckit, 2018;Schuckit et al, 2019a;Schuckit et al, 2019b).…”

“…If demography is closely related to FHM sensitivity, it could be easier to identify which informant is likely to give the most accurate FH. Our every 5-year evaluation over 35 years for members of 2 generations of the San Diego Prospective Study (SDPS; e.g., Schuckit et al, 2019a;Schuckit et al, 2019b) offers an opportunity to expand information regarding relationships of demography and other characteristics to the accuracy of reports of parental alcohol-related problems by offspring. The SDPS incorporates many of the better-established characteristics related to higher accuracy of informants' FHM reports.…”