title: Does the social context of early alcohol use affect risky drinking in adolescents? Prospective cohort study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  There are limited longitudinal data on the associations between different social contexts of alcohol use and risky adolescent drinking.
  
  
  METHODS
  Australian prospective longitudinal cohort of 1943 adolescents with 6 assessment waves at ages 14-17 years. Drinkers were asked where and how frequently they drank. Contexts were: at home with family, at home alone, at a party with friends, in a park/car, or at a bar/nightclub. The outcomes were prevalence and incidence of risky drinking (≥5 standard drinks (10g alcohol) on a day, past week) and very risky drinking (>20 standard drinks for males and >11 for females) in early (waves 1-2) and late (waves 3-6) adolescence.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Forty-four percent (95 % CI: 41-46 %) reported past-week risky drinking on at least one wave during adolescence (waves 1-6). Drinking at a party was the most common repeated drinking context in early adolescence (28 %, 95 % CI 26-30 %); 15 % reported drinking repeatedly (3+ times) with their family in early adolescence (95 % CI: 14-17 %). For all contexts (including drinking with family), drinking 3+ times in a given context was associated with increased the risk of risky drinking in later adolescence. These effects remained apparent after adjustment for potential confounders (e.g. for drinking with family, adjusted RR 1.9; 95 % CI: 1.5-2.4). Similar patterns were observed for very risky drinking.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results suggest that consumption with family does not protect against risky drinking. Furthermore, parents who wish to minimise high risk drinking by their adolescent children might also limit their children's opportunities to consume alcohol in unsupervised settings.
authors.affiliation: National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW Australia, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia. l.degenhardt@unsw.edu.au.|Centre for Adolescent Health, Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Melbourne, Australia. l.degenhardt@unsw.edu.au.|School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia. l.degenhardt@unsw.edu.au.|Department of Global Health, School of Public Health, University of Washington, Seattle, USA. l.degenhardt@unsw.edu.au.
authors.forename: Louisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Degenhardt
authors.affiliation: Centre for Adolescent Health, Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Melbourne, Australia. helena.romaniuk@mcri.edu.au.|Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics Unit, Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Melbourne, Australia. helena.romaniuk@mcri.edu.au.|Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia. helena.romaniuk@mcri.edu.au.
authors.forename: Helena
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Romaniuk
authors.affiliation: Centre for Adolescent Health, Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Melbourne, Australia. ccoffey@bigpond.com.
authors.forename: Carolyn
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Coffey
authors.affiliation: Centre for Youth Substance Abuse Research, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. w.hall@uq.edu.au.|King's College London (Institute of Psychiatry), King's College London, London, UK. w.hall@uq.edu.au.
authors.forename: Wayne D
authors.initials: WD
authors.lastname: Hall
authors.affiliation: National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW Australia, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia. w.swift@unsw.edu.au.
authors.forename: Wendy
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Swift
authors.affiliation: School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia. john.carlin@mcri.edu.au.|Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics Unit, Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Melbourne, Australia. john.carlin@mcri.edu.au.
authors.forename: John B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Carlin
authors.affiliation: Centre for Adolescent Health, Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Melbourne, Australia. christinaoloughlin@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Christina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: O'Loughlin
authors.affiliation: Centre for Adolescent Health, Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Melbourne, Australia. george.patton@rch.org.au.|Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia. george.patton@rch.org.au.
authors.forename: George C
authors.initials: GC
authors.lastname: Patton
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000435:Alcoholic Intoxication / Q000453:epidemiology*; D001315:Australia / Q000453:epidemiology; D063425:Binge Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012306:Risk; D012309:Risk-Taking; D012931:Social Environment; D000066608:Underage Drinking / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*