The regular use of alcohol emerges in adolescence and young adulthood. Whether or not this use becomes problematic appears to be related to a number of neurobiological and psychosocial factors. With a view toward integrating biological/genetic theories of etiology with environmental hypotheses, a vulnerability conceptualization was developed (Hill et al. 1987a). Other early conceptualizations of AUD have been offered that further emphasized interactions between biogenetic aspects of personality/termperament, environment, and behavioral domains of influence (Sher 1991; Bates and Labouvie 1994; Jessor et al. 1991). In a recent review, Masten et al. (2008) notes the factors that have consistently predicted the age of regular drinking onset including a family history of alcohol abuse, parents' antisocial behavior, mother's depression, poor parenting, prenatal exposure to alcohol, child antisocial behavior, and child self-regulation problems. Moreover, early onset to begin drinking is an important predictor of adult alcohol problems.
