The evidence linking childhood trauma with risk for early initiation of alcohol use is compelling. In a recent study drawing data from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions, Oberleitner et al. [1] reported that individuals who had experienced child maltreatment initiated alcohol use one year earlier on average than those without a history of child maltreatment. Similarly, in their large-scale investigation of substance use and childhood trauma - defined more broadly to also include adverse events such as witnessing violence - Dube and colleagues [2] found that the prevalence of alcohol use was higher in adolescents who had experienced adverse events and it increased with each additional adverse event. Although the association between childhood trauma and early alcohol use is well supported, it is not yet known if the magnitude of that association varies by race.
