Despite these limitations, this study has a number of strengths. We used confirmatory factor analysis and factor mixture modeling to classify parenting style typologies. We also used a ZIP growth curve modeling approach to test the study’s multivariate hypotheses. These methods are more powerful than ordinary least square methods for examining associations between risk factors and changes in outcomes. In addition, we used a database with a large nationally representative sample. We also controlled for a number of potential confounding variables. Further, to our knowledge, this is the first study to examine racial differences in the relationship between parenting style and HED trajectories from adolescence to young adulthood. Additionally, as compared with other studies that have evaluated racial differences in parenting styles and adolescent alcohol-use trajectories, our analytic sample was followed across a longer period (19 years) and further into the lifespan (from 12 years to 31 years old). For example, Adalbjarnardottir and Hafsteinsson (2001) followed youth for only 4 years during adolescence (ages 14 to 18 years). Examining the etiology of HED trajectories into young adulthood is particularly important
