Assuming replication of the current study results, the findings have potentially important implications for the early identification of alcoholism risk. Currently, the most visible evidence-based and widely discussed marker of risk for alcoholism is consumption of alcohol at a young age (DeWit et al., 2000; Grant and Dawson, 1997). This widely published finding directs interventionists’ attention to early adolescent alcohol consumption patterns. The findings of the current study, however, also suggest the potential importance of targeting child behavior at a younger age. Although the current study focused on children 8 and 10 years of age, behavior problems such as hyperactivity, impulsivity, and other indices of behavioral undercontrol may be measured at appreciably younger ages and show prediction for adolescent (Martel et al., 2009) and adulthood alcohol outcomes (Caspi et al., 1995). This pathway to alcohol problems, at least in adolescence, reliably includes proneness to deviance. Later waves of data collected in this study will allow explicit tests of the developmental progression to adolescent drinking as the children move into the peak period of risk for alcohol and drug use.
