Whether the effects of parental separation on sexual timing are distinct from risks associated with parental alcoholism is also unknown. History of alcoholism is highly predictive of dissolution of reproductive relationships [16] and each increases risk of correlated problem behavior in offspring [17], notably early drinking and other substance use [18,19]. In the present paper, to identify unique risk from parental separation, we examined age at first voluntary sexual intercourse as a joint function of parental separation during childhood and parental alcoholism. For increased confidence in observed effects, we employed both survival and propensity score analyses conducted separately for African and European ancestry families.
