title: The role of person-environment interactions in increased alcohol use in the transition to college.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Even among those at risk for problematic alcohol use, there is variability in developmental trajectories of drinking and related problems. This prospective study examined the role of person-environment interactions in increased drinking during the transition to college.
  
  
  METHODS
  The authors followed a sample of recent high school graduates to test whether protective environmental factors could delay increases in drinking among those high in trait-level risk factors.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants completed web-based surveys.
  
  
  METHODS
  A sample of 1784 students in the incoming class of 2004 at a large public United States university completed high school and first-semester-of-college assessments.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants completed self-report measures of alcohol use, alcohol-related problems, perceived awareness and caring from parents and other adults, sensation seeking and impulsivity.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In the transition to college, high sensation seekers from more protective high school parental environments increased their alcohol use and problems more than did other students. Increases in alcohol problems were also high among more impulsive students from less protective environments. Whereas high sensation seekers drank equivalently in college regardless of high school-perceived awareness and caring, those who had greater high school-perceived awareness and caring did not experience as many alcohol-related problems in college.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Differences in drinking trajectories may be a function of person-environment interactions. Risk associated with high sensation seeking may be masked among adolescents in protective environments, but its emergence in the college transition predicts increases in alcohol use and related problems.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, The University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station, Austin, TX 78712, USA. pdquinn@mail.utexas.edu
authors.forename: Patrick D
authors.initials: PD
authors.lastname: Quinn
authors.forename: Kim
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Fromme
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D000434:Alcoholic Beverages / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007175:Impulsive Behavior / Q000453:epidemiology; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010379:Peer Group; D010553:Personality Development; D011446:Prospective Studies; D057566:Self Report; D012677:Sensation; D012931:Social Environment; D012932:Social Facilitation; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D014495:Universities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D055815:Young Adult