drinking alone when you're young linked to alcohol problems later in life

researchers say young people often drink alone as a way to cope with negative emotions, a pattern of use that has been linked to alcohol use disorder.

by dave yasvinski

published jul 12, 2022

3 minute read

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3 minute read

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drinking alone when you're young linked to alcohol problems in later life

around one in five canadians over the age of 12 (or about 5.9 million people) are considered heavy drinkers, according to statistics canada. getty

solitary drinking early in life raises the risk of alcohol use disorder (aud), according to a new study that says the circumstances in which a person reaches for a bottle is just as important as the quantity they consume. the study, published in the journal drug and alcohol dependence, found that the solitary consumption of alcohol in early adolescence and adulthood, particularly among women, may not bode well for the future. the research takes on added urgency at time when the pandemic is topping up the number of people engaged in the isolated activity.

“most young people who drink do it with others in social settings, but a substantial minority of young people are drinking alone,” said kasey creswell, lead author of the study and an associate professor of psychology at carnegie mellon university. “solitary drinking is a unique and robust risk factor for future alcohol use disorder. even after we account for well-known risk factors, like binge drinking, frequency of alcohol use, socioeconomic status and gender, we see a strong signal that drinking alone as a young person predicts alcohol problems in adulthood.”

excessive alcohol use is a global problem that contributes to over three million deaths every year. around one in five canadians over the age of 12 (or about 5.9 million people) are considered heavy drinkers, according to statistics canada, with males more likely than females to engage in the practice. while doctors are very good at asking patients about the frequency and quantity of alcohol they consume, creswell said they generally neglect to inquire about the social context in which they drink — a critical indicator of impending misuse.

to further explore the issue, researchers analyzed data from monitoring the future, an ongoing epidemiological study of drug and alcohol use that follows american youth on the road from adolescence to adulthood. roughly 4,500 participants in this study, all around the age of 18 at the outset, answered surveys relating to their patterns of alcohol consumption, including solitary use, before being followed by researchers for 17 years. they were asked to provide information about their drinking habits at ages 23 to 24 and to give details about aud symptoms at age 35.

drinking socially less likely tied to alcohol use disorder

the team found that adolescents and young adults who said they drank alone faced an increased risk of developing symptoms of aud later in life compared to peers who only drank in social situations, even after controlling for other factors. adolescents and young adults who drank alone were 35 per cent and 60 per cent more likely, respectively, to exhibit signs of aud at age 35 compared to social-only drinkers. adolescent females who drank alone were at particular risk of struggles with symptoms of the disorder in adulthood.

with around one in four adolescents and two in five young adults reporting a tendency to drink alone, researchers believe targeted interventions may be the best way to educate and address a serious issue that has only been made worse by covid-19. previous research by creswell has found that young people often drink alone as a way to cope with negative emotions, a pattern of use that has been linked to alcohol problems and is likely also on the rise given the current state of the world.

“with concurrent increases in pandemic-related depression and anxiety, we may very well see an increase in alcohol problems among the nation’s youth,” she said.

dave yasvinski is a writer with healthing.ca

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