As one would expect, the findings from this high-risk sample are more consistent with similar analyses in clinical samples than in population-based samples. Time spent drinking or recovering and giving up activities were the two most severe criteria in the current study and in a study using data from a multisite treatment sample (Wu et al., 2009), suggesting that these criteria map higher ranges of severity in exceptionally high-risk samples. Giving up activities was also among the more severe criteria in clinical, adjudicated, and community samples of adolescents (Gelhorn et al., 2008). In a population-based study, giving up activities was the most severe criterion and difficulty quitting and larger/longer were least severe (Saha et al., 2006), similar to the current study, but the severity ranking of the other criteria was quite different. In another population-based study, time spent was the least severe criterion among individuals aged 18 and older (Harford et al., 2009); in the current study it was the most severe criterion for men and second most severe for women, perhaps reflecting greater habituation to alcohol use in this
