Prospective relations between growth in drinking and familial stressors across adolescence.Journal of Abnormal Psychology. Vol 118(3), Aug 2009, 610-622.
Although there is much empirical support for the relation between stress and alcohol consumption in adolescence, it is unclear whether exposure to stressors is associated with overall trajectories or temporary elevations in drinking. Moreover, little research has explored whether the stress–alcohol use association in adolescence may be explained by shared risk factors that produce both individual differences in stress exposure and elevated risk for alcohol use.
The present study tested these hypotheses within the context of a state-trait model of family stressors in a prospectively studied sample of children at high risk for alcoholism: children of alcoholic parents and matched controls (n = 451).
These findings imply that trait familial stressors mark adolescents at risk for alcohol use and also impact adolescent alcohol use within a short time frame (i.e., over 1 year vs. over many years) when they occur above and beyond the adolescent’s “usual load” of stressors
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