Despite its strengths, the current study has certain limitations. First, although we made use of a range of trauma measures, collected information on trauma history from primary caregivers as well as girls, and applied stringent standards regarding missing trauma data, any missing data could lead to miscategorizing a trauma-exposed participant as unexposed, which could result in underestimating associations of childhood trauma with SES, neighborhood factors, or alcohol use. Second, the availability of trauma reports exclusively from primary caregivers prior to age 10 likely resulted in underreporting of traumatic experiences in early childhood. Third, many of the questions in the trauma assessments were not event-specific (e.g., emergency room visits related to “gunshot, stabbing, sexual assault, or rape”) so we cannot draw inferences about the association of specific types of traumatic events with alcohol use initiation, SES, or neighborhood factors. Fourth, although the inclusion of trauma related questions in different sections of the interview increased the likelihood of accurately identifying trauma-exposed participants, this method did not allow us to get a count of the number of events experienced, as it would be
