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Updated: Aug 31, 2026

The Motivation for Alcohol Reward: Predictors of Progressive-Ratio Intravenous Alcohol Self-Administration in Humans
Published on: April 28, 2022
Reliability of self-reported age of substance involvement onset
Gilbert R Parra1, Susan E O'Neill, Kenneth J Sher
1Dept of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri-Columbia, 200 South 7th Street, Columbia, MO 65211, USA.
Abstract:
The authors investigated the reliability of self-reported age of onset (AO) for alcohol, tobacco (cigarette), and illicit drug involvement. Participants were 410 young adults taking part in an 11-year longitudinal study. A moderate degree of reliability was found for the 3 substances. Despite this level of stability, results illustrate a tendency for reported AOs to increase over time. The trend is more salient for participants who reported younger AOs at the initial assessment. Findings also indicate that, for alcohol and tobacco, more individuals were classified as early onset based on Year 1 compared with Year 11 reports. Despite these systematic changes, at least for alcohol and illicit drugs, age at which onset was assessed did not moderate the association between AO and substance-related outcomes.
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