The fact that AFD at ages 15-17 was associated with an increased risk of incident dependence for women only (as well as a greater risk of hazardous drinking among women) lends itself to various interpretations. First, drinking at those ages might reflect a more deviant behavior among girls than boys, thus one more likely to be associated with increased risk of psychopathology, including AUD. The proportion of women who started drinking at ages 15-17 was lower than the proportion of men (21% vs. 29%). Although this analysis controlled for the factors thought most likely to contribute to any selectivity in terms of deviance-proneness, the dichotomous measures used for some risk factors may not have accounted for gender differences in the severity of psychiatric disorder among individuals with AFD at ages 15-17. Moreover, interpreting the gender interaction with AFD at ages 15-17 as a reflection of greater severity of psychopathology among women would be consistent with the lack of a comparable gender interaction in the low-risk population of individuals that excluded individuals with predisposing psychopathology. The lack of a comparable interaction
