Characterizing Alcohol Expectancies in the ABCD Study: Associations with Sociodemographic Factors, the Immediate Social Environment, and Genetic Propensities

• Published in: Behavior genetics 2023-05, Vol.53 (3), p.265-278
• Main Authors: Johnson, Emma C., Paul, Sarah E., Baranger, David A. A., Hatoum, Alexander S., Colbert, Sarah M. C., Lin, Shuyu, Wolff, Rachel, Gorelik, Aaron J., Hansen, Isabella, Karcher, Nicole R., Bogdan, Ryan, Agrawal, Arpana
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adverse Childhood Experiences; Alcohol related disorders; Alcohol use; Alcoholism; Alcohols; Behavioral Science and Psychology; Child; Childhood experiences; Children; Children & youth; Clinical Psychology; Cognitive ability; Cognitive development; Drinking behavior; Drug use; Female; Genetic Predisposition to Disease; Genetics; Health Psychology; Humans; Liability; Male; Original Research; Peers; Phenotypes; Polygenic inheritance; Psychology; Psychosocial factors; Public Health; Regression analysis; Religious beliefs; Risk taking; Social Environment; Sociodemographic Factors; Sociodemographics; Socioeconomic Factors; Substance use disorder; Twins; Underage Drinking - psychology
• ISSN: 0001-8244; 1573-3297; 1573-3297
• DOI: 10.1007/s10519-023-10133-2

Alcohol expectancies (AEs) are associated with likelihood of alcohol initiation and subsequent alcohol use disorders. It is unclear whether genetic predisposition to alcohol use and/or related traits contributes to shaping how one expects to feel when drinking alcohol. We used the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study to examine associations between genetic propensities (i.e., polygenic risk for problematic alcohol use, depression, risk-taking), sociodemographic factors (i.e., parent income), and the immediate social environment (i.e., peer use and disapproval toward alcohol) and positive and negative AEs in alcohol-naïve children (max analytic N = 5,352). Mixed-effect regression models showed that age, parental education, importance of the child’s religious beliefs, adverse childhood experiences, and peer disapproval of alcohol use were associated with positive and/or negative AEs, to varying degrees. Overall, our results suggest several familial and psychosocial predictors of AEs but little evidence of contributions from polygenic liability to problematic alcohol use or related phenotypes.