Positive and negative effects of internalizing on alcohol use problems from childhood to young adulthood: The mediating and suppressing role of externalizing.

ABSTRACT: A longstanding hypothesis is that some alcohol use problems (AUP) develop and are maintained through the "self-medication" of internalizing (INT; depression and anxiety) problems. However, their high rate of co-occurrence with one another and with externalizing (EXT; antisocial behavior and impulse control) problems obscures any causal association because EXT may account for the INT-AUP link. Using a large community sample, we estimated prospective effects of INT and EXT on AUP via latent cross-lagged mediation panel spanning 14 years from childhood (ages 9-11) to young adulthood (ages 21-23). After adjusting for the cross-lagged, concurrent, and stability effects across factors, INT decreased AUP risk through its direct and indirect effects and increased AUP risk through shared variance w

SUBMITTER: Foster KT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6849508 | biostudies-literature | 2018 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature