title: Sex differences in genetic and environmental contributions to alcohol consumption from early adolescence to young adulthood.
abstract: To estimate genetic and environmental contributions to alcohol consumption from early adolescence to young adulthood, and test whether gender moderates these effects.
  
  
  
  Longitudinal twin cohort design.
  
  
  
  Population-based sample from Norway.
  
  
  
  A total of 2862 male and female twins, aged 14-22 years, were assessed at one (n = 881), two (n = 898) or three (n = 1083) occasions. The percentage of females was between 56 and 63 in the different age groups (in the different waves).
  
  
  
  Alcohol consumption was measured by two questionnaire items about frequency of alcohol use and frequency of being drunk.
  
  
  
  Additive genetic effects showed low to moderate contributions [proportion estimate, 95% confidence interval (CI) = range from 0.03 (0.00-0.14) to 0.49 (0.37-0.59) in males and from 0.09 (0.00-0.57) to 0.41 (0.24-0.58) in females] from adolescence to young adulthood, while environmental influences shared by twin pairs and contributing to twin similarity were moderate to highly influential during this developmental period [proportion estimate, 95% CI = range from 0.04 (0.00-0.13) to 0.45 (0.26-0.60) in males for shared environment in common with females, from 0.25 (0.09-0.42) to 0.54 (0.06-0.78) for shared environment specific to males and from 0.36 (0.20-0.52) to 0.51 (0.37-0.71) in females]. There was evidence of qualitative sex differences with shared environmental influences being largely sex-specific from middle adolescence onwards.
  
  
  
  Alcohol consumption from early adolescence to young adulthood appears to be influenced to a small to moderate degree by genetic factors and to a moderate to high degree by shared environmental factors (e.g. rearing influences, shared friends). The shared environmental factors influencing alcohol consumption appear to be largely gender-specific.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Karoline B
authors.initials: KB
authors.lastname: Seglem
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Trine
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Waaktaar
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.|Division of Mental Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Helga
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ask
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Svenn
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Torgersen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000235:genetics; D000435:Alcoholic Intoxication / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000235:genetics; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D059647:Gene-Environment Interaction; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D012737:Sex Factors; D014429:Twins, Dizygotic; D014430:Twins, Monozygotic; D000066608:Underage Drinking / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Adolescence; aetiology; alcohol consumption; longitudinal; sex differences; twin