The study results may also be helpful in interpreting cross-cultural differences in the risks for heavy drinking and problems attributed to early drinking. Although the current study suggests that AO and delay are important predictors of drinking outcomes, it also suggests that associations between AO and drinking outcomes may be influenced by underlying trait risk factors, including certain personality traits. Additionally, cross-cultural differences in risk attributed to an early AO may be due, at least in part, to the socioenvironmental context in which drinking occurs. In the United States, drinking at an early age is not socially sanctioned and, as such, may be associated with broader risk for deviant behavior. This may help explain why most research identifying AO as a risk factor for negative alcohol outcomes originates in the United States. In contrast, literature asserting that an early AO confers limited risk or, in some cases, protection against negative alcohol outcomes originates primarily in countries in which earlier drinking is more culturally normative. In these cases, AO may be less likely to be linked to other markers of deviance.
