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 between gender and initiation of drinking at ages <15 could reflect either the smaller gender difference in the prevalence of AFD before age 15 (8% of men vs. 6% of women) or the possibility that drinking at such extremely early ages is sufficiently deviant for both boys and girls as to obviate the importance of that difference.
