This study’s findings should be viewed in the context of several limitations, including the lack of sample ancestral diversity, small number of AUB measures which could be harmonized across cohorts/waves, subtle cohort differences in how AUB measures were assessed, and dissection of PGSs which are bound by GWAS discovery power and capture only a small proportion of the phenotypic variance of AUBs. Nonetheless, these are balanced by strengths of the meta-analytic approach drawing from multiple complementary study designs. We highlight the importance of genetic influences on alcohol Problems in shaping an accelerating trajectory of drinking frequency, which may already be useful for early identification of at-risk individuals. Multiple other genetic and environmental risk dimensions are, of course, also important in shaping lifelong alcohol use behaviors. Further longitudinal research, especially within gene discovery efforts, is needed to illuminate the mechanisms linking genetic variation to the development of alcohol use behaviors across the lifespan.
