At 13 years 10 months of age (13.8 years; SD=2.5 months), adolescents participated in clinic visits that involved interviews with researchers, where they were asked questions about their current and past alcohol use. Of the available questions, four separate alcohol-related outcomes were utilized in the current analyses: 1) having had a full drink in the past 6 months; 2) having drunk alcohol without parental permission in the past 6 months; 3) maximum drinks in a 24-hour period (which was dichotomized such that those who reported having 3 or more drinks were classified as “binge” drinkers, as in Melotti et al. (2011); and 4) number of whole drinks consumed in the past 6 months. These outcomes were explored individually rather than combined into a composite risk score or factor score because previous reports have suggested that the relationships observed between internalizing symptoms and alcohol use/problems might differ as a function of the outcome of the outcome being examined (Crum et al., 2008b; Marmorstein et al., 2010b). By considering each alcohol-related outcome individually, we avoid obscuring outcome-specific relationships.
