a two-year period, ingestion of alcohol had become part of these participants’ typical social routines. Within this group, the average age of first drink was reported to be 16.4, and escalation to regular use was reported to be on average at age 17.6, which coheres with national surveys that suggest accelerations of use after age 16. For instance, in 2010, it was reported that rates of current alcohol use accelerate with increasing age in the United States with 24.6% of 16 or 17 year olds reporting active use, a proportion that grows to 48.9% among 18 to 20 year-olds, reaching 70.0% among 21 to 25 year olds (www.samsha.gov, 2010). Alcohol use initiators reported drinking from 1 to 10 drinks per occasion of use in the context of weekly use of alcohol. Alcohol use characteristics are presented in Table 1 for the initiator sample.
