The findings of the current study need to be understood in their epidemiological context. This was a sample of adolescent/young adult women. Recent studies indicate that over half of U.S. adolescents have used alcohol, and females currently have about half the prevalence rate of alcohol and drug use disorders as seen in males (Merikangas & McClair, 2012). However, the rates of increase over recent decades have been 117% for females compared to 21% for males (Holdcraft & Iacono, 2002), thus indicating that risk for female substance use disorders (SUD) has been accelerating, and gender differences have been declining. This is critical because adolescence is the key developmental period for SUDs since there are striking increases in prevalence rates well into young adulthood (Merikangas & McClair, 2012), and because those who develop an SUD in adolescence are at increased risk for persistent symptoms well into adulthood (Rohde, Lewinsohn, Kahler, Seeley, & Brown, 2001) and into middle age (Pitkänen et al., 2008). Therefore, knowledge of the nature of risk and protective factors on this developmental period is critical, and especially for females.
