Adversity during the first two decades of life has lasting detrimental effects on mental health and other health problems, including new disorder onsets and greater chronicity and severity of lifetime psychiatric disorders (Keyes, Hatzenbuehler, & Hasin, 2011; Kessler et al., 2010) and later heavy alcohol consumption, problems, and dependence (e.g., Benjet, Borges, Medina-Mora, & Mendez, 2012; Lloyd & Turner, 2008; Miller, Downs, & Testa, 1993). Childhood adversity encompasses a wide range of life events that include physical and sexual abuse, witnessing violent events, environmental deprivation, and parental divorce/separation. Multi-item childhood life event inventories mix relatively common occurrences such as a change in residence with more traumatic events such as abuse and victimization, which may differ significantly in their impact on mental health, and thus may be better examined independently. National data indicate that divorce/separation is one of the most commonly endorsed adverse childhood events (Green et al., 2010; Rothman et al., 2008), and youth who experience parental divorce/separation show elevated alcohol involvement into adulthood, including heavy drinking and alcohol-related problems as well as (lifetime) alcohol abuse and dependence (Dube et
