On the one hand, adolescents are often less sensitive than adults to certain undesired effects of alcohol that likely serve as cues to limit intake. For instance, basic animal studies have found that, following intoxicating doses of alcohol, adolescents are less sensitive than adults to alcohol-related disruptions in motor behavior (Silveri & Spear, 2001; White et al., 2002), social impairment (e.g., Varlinskaya & Spear, 2006), sedation (Moy et al., 1998; Silveri & Spear, 1998), and general aversive effects (Vetter-O’Hagen et al., 2009), as well as to “hangover”-related elevations in anxiety (Varlinskaya & Spear, 2004; Doremus-Fitzwater & Spear, 2007). Although ethical concerns preclude analogous studies in humans, in one older study, Behar and colleagues (1983) did administer alcohol challenges to 8- to 15-year-olds and noted that they “were impressed by how little gross behavioral change occurred in the children…after a dose of alcohol which had been intoxicating in an adult population” (p.407).
