The Short Mood and Feelings Questionnaire (SMFQ) [15] is a brief (13-item) questionnaire enquiring about the occurrence of depressive symptoms over the past 2 weeks. The SMFQ correlates highly with more extensive depression rating scales like the children’s depression inventory [16] and the diagnostic interview schedule for children [17] and discriminates depressed from non-depressed children in general population samples. Study participants have so far completed the SMFQ on six occasions spanning adolescence, either by filling in a postal questionnaire or by answering the same questions at a PC terminal during a clinic visit. The current analysis will focus on the middle four measures: 12 years 10 months (clinic), 13 years 10 months (clinic), 16 years 6 months (questionnaire) and 17 years 10 months (clinic). Actual age at response varied about each intended time point with an SD of approximately 3 months. The first and sixth SMFQ measures were not utilised for the current analysis as they were collected concurrently either with baseline covariates or the alcohol outcomes. The item ‘I was very restless’ was omitted from the 13-item SMFQ in
