Hyperbolic discounting rates and risk for problematic alcohol use in youth enrolled in the Adolescent Brain and...

Adolescence is the peak period for the emergence of substance use, which can lead to long-term psychosocial, occupational and interpersonal complications. Ongoing large-scale, longitudinal, consortium initiatives, such as the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development (ABCD) study, offer unprecedented opportunities to elucidate key risk factors for problematic substance use in a well-powered sample and to examine how changes in risk factors relate to symptoms across time. Delay discounting has been proposed as a putative risk marker for early substance-use initiation and other forms of psychopathology. However, the extent to which other factors (e.g., socio-economic status and cognitive ability) influence discounting behaviour in young adolescents is not well established. The present study leverages data from the ABCD study (n = 11 045) to assess associations between core demographic and familial variables and delay discounting in youth-operationalized using hyperbolic discounting rates (k)-before the onset of significant psychopathology. Model estimates revealed significant effects of individual difference factors (e.g., sex and socio-economic status) and alcohol risk status (based on family history) on delay discounting. No significant differences were observed in the primary sample when comparing the presence of parent drug problems or prenatal drug exposures. These effects will require replication in later waves of ABCD. Nonetheless, these results provide support for delay discounting as a potential risk marker for problematic alcohol use and demonstrate a relationship between key demographic variables and adolescent discounting behaviour. Further, these results provide an empirical baseline from which developmental trajectories of delay discounting and substance use may be tracked throughout future waves of ABCD.