Transitioning into and out of large-effect drinking in young adulthood

As individuals age beyond the college years into young adulthood, many exhibit a tendency to moderate or "mature out of" alcohol involvement. The current study classified effect-drinking statuses in young adults and examined transitions among statuses using latent transition analysis, a latent variable state-sequential model for longitudinal data. At 3 occasions over 7 years (Years 1, 4, and 7), 443 men (47%) and women (mean age of both at baseline = 18.5 years; 51% with family history of alcoholism) responded to 3 past-30-day items assessing drinking and subjective effects of drinking: whether the respondent drank alcohol, felt high, and felt drunk. Latent statuses included abstainers (14% at Year 1), limited-effect drinkers (8%), moderate-effect drinkers (23%), and large-effect drinkers (54%). Respondents with family history of alcoholism were less likely to transition out of large-effect drinking than those without family history. Men exhibited more severe initial effect-drinking statuses and lower transition probabilities into less severe effect-drinking statuses than women.