Timing of Adolescent Alcohol Initiation and Unexplored Consequences: A Propensity Score Matching Approach

Abstract

There is scarcity of research comparing two age groups on the consequences of adolescent alcohol initiation. Particularly, it remains unknown whether alcohol initiation in grade 9 or earlier or grade 10–12 predict different or similar consequences in adolescents’ friend network and educational aspiration. The current study focuses on whether initiating alcohol use in grade 9 or earlier or grade 10–12 is associated with adolescents’ frequency of getting drunk, number of drunk friends they have, and their intention to obtain higher education. We used the data from the Monitoring the Future - Public Use Cross Sectional Datasets (1976–2022). We used R to conduct the propensity score matching, multiple linear regression analyses and two-way ANOVA. After propensity score adjustment, only associations between initiating alcohol use in grade 10–12 and getting drunk and initiating alcohol use in grade 10–12 and drunk friends remained significant.