Underage drinking is a highly prevalent and serious public health concern. Up to 20% of high school students report binge drinking in the past two weeks, and underage drinking can result in significant short- and long-term consequences (e.g., drunk driving, academic/occupational impairment, later alcohol and substance use disorder). While alcohol use on average increases over the course of adolescence and decreases during the transition to adulthood, research has identified several distinct trajectories of alcohol use across development. These distinct trajectories have different prognoses for long-term outcomes (e.g., later alcohol and substance use disorders), highlighting the need to identify the person and environmental determinants of high-risk pathways to inform prevention efforts for young drinkers.

According to an interactional perspective, there are dynamic, reciprocal interactions between person and environmental factors across development. In regards to alcohol use, it is well documented that adolescents both match their peers’ drinking (i.e., peer socialization) and seek out peers compatible with their own alcohol use (i.e., peer selection). Emerging, albeit limited, evidence suggests peer socialization and selection processes may be modulated by genetics. Variations in alcohol metabolism genes (i.e., ADH and ALDH) have been consistently found to influence drinking behavior, with high-activity variants protective against alcohol use/misuse. These protective effects may attenuate peer socialization and selection processes, with adolescent high-activity carriers less likely to associate with and less susceptible to alcohol-promoting peers. The proposed project would be the first to examine moderation of peer socialization and selection processes by alcohol metabolism genes within adolescent drinking trajectories.