1. 26/05/13 If Drinking Starts at Puberty, It’s More Likely to Lead to Alcohol Problems | TIME.com
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ALCOHOL
If Drinking Starts at Puberty, It’s More Likely to Lead to Alcohol
Problems
By Maia Szalavitz May 24, 2013 4 Comments
Taking your first drink in your early teens may put you at
greater risk of developing alcohol problems later on,
according to new research.
The study adds to work suggesting that early start to
substance use may be particularly dangerous — not only
because those who are at high risk of becoming dependent
tend to start young for social reasons, but also because early
use may affect brain development.
Researchers have long known that the age at which a person
starts drinking or taking drugs is a good predictor of whether
or not he or she will develop an addiction. A person who
starts drinking between age 11 and 14, for example, has a 16%
chance of becoming an alcoholic 10 years later, while the odds
are just 1% for someone who starts at 19 or older, according to one large study.
And there are several reasons for this elevated risk. Children who start drinking at 12 may turn
to alcohol to escape a chaotic, unstable family situation, or to cope with their own psychological
stress or anxiety; such a strategy, however, may prevent them from learning other ways of
coping. It’s also possible that the effects of alcohol on the brain during this period of
development may make addiction more likely.
MORE: Brain Scans Can Predict Which Alcoholics Are Most Likely to Relapse
To find out, researchers led by Miriam Schneider of the University of Heidelberg in Germany
studied 280 young adults who had taken part in a long term study of children at risk of many
types of bad outcomes because of poverty and potential maltreatment. They wanted to learn
how having a first full drink (not just a sip or ceremonial taste) during puberty, vs. other
periods, affected the odds of alcohol problems.
The volunteers were assessed on many psychological measures every several years between age
3 months and age 23: most of them had experienced various types of childhood adversity such
as poverty and domestic violence. Researchers controlled for the level of negative childhood
experiences, parental addictions and early childhood behavior problems— all of which can
independently influence risk of alcohol problems— when they looked at the effects of puberty
on later drinking.
The researchers measured puberty in boys by documenting their levels of pubic hair and genital
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2. 26/05/13 If Drinking Starts at Puberty, It’s More Likely to Lead to Alcohol Problems | TIME.com
healthland.time.com/2013/05/24/if-drinking-starts-at-puberty-its-more-likely-to-lead-to-alcohol-problems/print/ 2/2
Maia Szalavitz @maiasz
Maia Szalavitz is a neuroscience journalist for TIME.com and co-author of Born
for Love: Why Empathy Is Essential — and Endangered.
Szalavitz's latest book
is Born for Love: Why
Empathy Is Essential —
and Endangered. It is
co-written with Dr.
Bruce Perry, a leading
expert in the
neuroscience of child
trauma and recovery.
development on the Tanner scale, an established measure of sexual maturity that ranges from 1­5, with 5 representing full sexual
maturity. Typically, American boys reach stage 5 by age 14 to 15 and girls usually have their first period around age 13.
The results, published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, were stark. Both men and women who started
drinking after puberty drank only about half as much as those who started when their hormones were surging. “Having the first drink
during puberty was associated with elevated drinking levels and more hazardous alcohol consumption patterns,” the authors write.
Because girls reach puberty earlier than boys — but tend to start drinking around the same time — this could help explain why women
are at lower risk of alcohol problems. Girls’ brains may be at a later stage of development when they start drinking.
Oddly, however, the study found that the very small group of children who had their first full drink before the hormonal chaos of
puberty began had a lower risk of alcohol problems later in life. “[The data] revealed a peak risk of alcohol use disorders for those
beginning at 12 to 14 years of age, while even earlier beginners seemed to have a slightly lower risk,” Schneider told Psych Central.
That suggests that something about the hormonal changes that occur during puberty may make substance use more problematic.
During this period, the brain experiences more growth and change than at any other stage of life except infancy. It could be that this
explosion of development puts young teens at especially high risk for addictions— even higher than if they started their exposure
earlier when their brains were more quiescent. However, because the numbers of people who started drinking before puberty young
in this study was so small, the results should still be considered preliminary.
MORE: Why Personality May Matter in Preventing Alcoholism
The study might seem to suggest that the trend toward early puberty could decrease the risk of alcohol problems in current
generations, since the brain may already be past its most vulnerable stage before alcohol exposure occurs in mid­adolescence. But
other research suggests that may not be the case. That data shows that children who enter puberty ahead of their peers are actually at
higher risk of addiction. However, it’s not clear whether this risk is due to social factors like being drawn to older teens who are also
more physically mature or because of biological factors like stress that can trigger early puberty.
Both the current study and that body of evidence, however, does suggest that early exposure to alcohol may set adolescents up for
problem drinking later on, and that delaying the first drink for as long as possible may help to foster more responsible alcohol habits.