Adults who began drinking alcohol at age 14 years or younger are most likely to drink alcohol to relieve stress, which puts them at an even higher health risk because the same group of adults have the highest base levels of alcohol consumption, according to an article in the January issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.

The study, based on data collected in a 2001-2002 survey of nearly 27,000 past-year drinkers, was led by Deborah Dawson, PhD, of the National Institutes of Health. Respondents were asked whether they had experienced 12 different types of stressful events in the previous year, such as death of a family member or close friend, unemployment for more than a month, financial crises, legal problems or disruption of a marriage or romantic relationship.

Average daily consumption of alcohol increased by 19 percent with each additional stressful event experienced among those who started drinking at 14 years or younger compared with 3 percent among those who took their first drink at 18 years or older.

After adjusting for other factors that might be related to the amount of alcohol consumed, the researchers said “the association between stress and volume of consumption was significant only for early initiators.”
The findings “provide one key to understanding why these early initiators are at greatly increased risk of developing alcohol use disorders,” according to the authors, who said the results suggest that young teens “would benefit from prevention efforts that include stress-reduction techniques that could serve as an alternative to drinking.”