A key limitation of the aforementioned studies is that they only examined differences in the levels of alcohol use at a particular time, rather than differences in the rates of growth of alcohol use through adolescence. Based on prior research, it is plausible that individuals with susceptible genotypes could show increased intervention effects on the rates of growth of adolescent alcohol use. For example, one longitudinal study reported that the rates of growth of substance use among AAs during early to mid-adolescence (11 to 14 years) were slower among carriers of the 5-HTTLPR short allele variant receiving high levels of involved-supportive parenting (Brody et al. 2009a). Using longitudinal data from the Fast Track intervention and control groups, the primary goal of this study was to examine the potential moderation by NR3C1 variants of intervention effects on the developmental trajectories, especially the rates of growth, of adolescent alcohol abuse. We fitted a latent growth curve model to eight waves of past-year alcohol abuse self-reported annually from grade 7 through 2 years post-high school to examine the developmental trajectories of alcohol abuse.
