Elementary school drinking: the role of temperament and learning.
Drinking in elementary school, despite its low base rate, has been shown to predict alcohol use in middle school (Wilson, Battistich, Syme, & Boyce, 2002), which in turn predicts alcohol abuse or dependence in young adults (Guo, Collins, Hill, & Hawkins, 2000). The authors report 1 of the 1st examinations of the relationship between personality and psychosocial learning risk factors and drinking behavior among elementary school students. Fifth-grade students completed measures of disinhibition, positive and negative alcohol expectancies, and drinking. MIMIC modeling, tests of mediation, and tests of moderation were completed to test these relations. It was found that disinhibition and positive alcohol expectancies were each related to drinking in 5th graders. Disinhibition moderated the relation between positive alcohol expectancies and drinking in some cases. Mediation was not supported.
Anderson
Kristen G
KG
Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA. kganders@ucsd.edu
Smith
Gregory T
GT
McCarthy
Denis M
DM
Fischer
Sarah F
SF
Fister
Suzannah
S
Grodin
Dae
D
Boerner
Laura M
LM
Hill
Kelly Kearfott
KK
D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D012307:Risk Factors; D013334:Students; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D013694:Temperament; D014481:United States