Although a direct association between effortful control and problematic alcohol use did not emerge, an interaction was present between effortful control and exposure to an “substance use lifestyle.” Poor self-regulatory skills of individuals with low to moderate exposure to and experience with alcohol use during adolescence placed them most at risk for escalations in alcohol use by early adulthood, when increased autonomy and freedom heighten risk. In these youth, effortful control may allow them to resist the influence of peers towards maladaptive alcohol use or avoid situations in which such negative influence may occur. In contrast, for youth who were already demonstrating high levels of alcohol use during adolescence and were deeply enmeshed in a culture of alcohol use, individual differences in effortful control had a limited protective effect on future problematic alcohol use. In fact, effortful control might even precipitate problematic alcohol use in adulthood. Although seemingly counterintuitive, these results are consistent with previous findings about the development of antisocial behavior in adolescence. In fact, past research (Piehler and Dishion 2007) showed that dyads of friends who were talking
