adult ages to coincide with key developmental periods for alcohol use initiation and escalation/de-escalation in different racial/ethnic groups. Despite having broadly been shown to influence racial/ethnic differences in a variety of health outcomes, there is also a gap in studies that examine community- and societal-level environmental influences on alcohol use. Considerations for selecting environmental factors for inclusion in gene-environment (G-E) association studies are offered. Potential environmental exposures at higher-order levels include indicators of community drinking norms, alcohol availability (e.g., outlet density), socioeconomic disadvantage, and unfair treatment (e.g., in housing and employment) as social control and social trigger mechanisms.
