The data set analysed was the Victoria, Australian arm of the International Youth Development Study (IYDS), in which 927 children (52% female) were first assessed in 2002 when in grade 5 (wave 1, modal age 10 years) and followed up until grade 11 (Wave 6, modal age 16 years), with the exception of grade 8. The analysis sample consisted of participants from a randomly selected grade 5 class from 55 schools (approximately 69% public, 9% independent, and 22% Catholic) [27]. The focus of the present study was on waves 2–5 (modal age 11–15 for waves 2–5 respectively) given that one and 12 month prevalence of alcohol use approximately doubles over these years [3, 27], and that family influences on alcohol use may be stronger in the earlier adolescent years than later adolescent years [28]. The analysis sample consists of all individuals with complete data for at least one of waves 2–5. Of 927 initial cases, 72 cases (7.77%) were excluded because of missing data at any wave. Of the total sample 86% completed two or more of these waves. To
