Given the importance of FH in alcohol research, increased attention has been given to its measurement and clinical applications. However, there exists a large degree of variability in the ascertainment and measurement of FH and the relative performance of different FH measures as predictors of phenotypes and endophenotypes, especially across different groups, has not been investigated. This is important because, several variants of FH have been utilized to examine associations with numerous alcohol variables with little understanding of the differences in their predictive value across diverse ethnic and social groups. Moreover, population characteristics (i.e., cultural and societal factors) have been shown to affect alcohol use and problems with significant variability observed across gender and race/ethnicity (Berkman and Kawachi 2000; Rehm et al., 2009; Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2015). Yet, little is known about how different FH measures and their associations with alcohol variables differ across gender and race/ethnicity.
