title: Early Adolescent Alcohol Use: Are Sipping and Drinking Distinct?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Sipping alcohol is common during early adolescence, but research has ignored the distinction between sipping and drinking whole alcohol beverages, conflating the 2, or else simply classifying "sippers" as abstainers. Research has not addressed whether sippers are different to drinkers, in relation to variables known to be associated with adolescent alcohol consumption, or considered whether sipping and drinking behaviors may have quite different associations.
  
  
  METHODS
  Parent-child dyads (N = 1,823) were recruited in 3 states from Australian grade 7 classes. Multinomial logistic analyses compared adolescents who had only had a sip/taste of alcohol (sippers) with adolescents who had consumed at least a whole drink (drinkers) in the past 6 months. The multivariate model assessed a broad range of demographics, parenting practices, peer influences, and adolescent externalizing and internalizing behaviors, and controlled for school clustering.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Compared to drinkers, sippers were less likely to come from 1-parent households (odds ratio [OR] = 0.59, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.35 to 0.98); less likely to come from low-socioeconomic status (SES) households (OR = 0.54, 95% CI: 0.31 to 0.94); more likely to come from families where parents provide stricter alcohol-specific rules (OR = 1.21, 95% CI: 1.11 to 1.32), stricter monitoring of the child's activities (OR = 1.10, 95% CI: 1.04 to 1.16), more consistent parenting practices (OR = 1.13, 95% CI: 1.05 to 1.23), and more positive family relationships (OR = 1.56, 95% CI: 1.02 to 2.43); and report having fewer substance-using peers (OR = 0.80, 95% CI: 0.70 to 0.91) and greater peer disapproval of any substance use (OR = 1.30, 95% CI: 1.19 to 1.42). After adjustment for confounders, the associations with household composition and SES were no longer significant, but the familial and peer associations remained significant in the multivariate analysis, χ(2) (40) = 1,493.06, p < 0.001.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Sipping alcohol has different associations with known predictors of adolescent alcohol use than drinking whole beverages, and sipping may be a distinct or separable behavior. Future research should better define quantities of early consumption and assess the relationship between early sipping and drinking on long-term outcomes separately.
authors.affiliation: National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Monika
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wadolowski
authors.affiliation: National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Delyse
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hutchinson
authors.affiliation: National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia.|School of Medicine (Psychology), University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tas., Australia.
authors.forename: Raimondo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bruno
authors.affiliation: National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Alexandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Aiken
authors.affiliation: National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Philip
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Clare
authors.affiliation: National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Tim
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Slade
authors.affiliation: Queensland Alcohol and Drug Research and Education Centre, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Qld, Australia.
authors.forename: Jake
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Najman
authors.affiliation: Centre for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Kypros
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kypri
authors.affiliation: National Drug Research Institute, Curtin University, Perth, WA, Australia.
authors.forename: Nyanda
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: McBride
authors.affiliation: National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Richard P
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Mattick
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D000367:Age Factors; D000435:Alcoholic Intoxication / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D001315:Australia / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D000066608:Underage Drinking / Q000523:psychology* / Q000639:trends
keywords: Adolescents; Alcohol; Alcohol Initiation; Children; Epidemiology