Focusing first on the AOO curves for alcohol use, we can see a clear nonlinear association across cohorts, with respondents in the oldest cohort having a substantially lower AOO curve than respondents in the more recent cohorts. Although there is some evidence of higher risk of beginning use in the late teens among the youngest compared to the intermediate-aged cohorts, this difference is much less dramatic than the evidence of lower risk in the oldest cohort. It is also noteworthy that the intercohort variation, although discernible prior to the late teens, is relatively small up to this point in the life course, by which time roughly 60% of respondents in each age cohort had started to drink. It was largely in later-onset use rather than early-onset use that the intercohort variation emerged most clearly, with initiation of alcohol use continuing later on into young adulthood for those in the younger cohorts.
