The Lifetime Alcohol Problems Score (LAPS) (Zucker, 1991, Zucker et al., 1997) is a time-based, multi- dimensional measure of problem alcohol involvement which scales the extent to which alcoholism-related symptomatology has been salient over the life course. LAPS is constructed of three component sub-scores which assess onset of first symptom (age of first drunkenness), variety of symptomatology (number of different alcohol related difficulties at any time) and life-invasiveness of the symptoms (index of life course duration of all drinking related problems from onset to present, corrected for period of risk exposure). LAPS is the sum of these three (standardized) component scores. For the number of alcohol related difficulties, questions included missing school, lost friends, divorce or separation, getting fired or laid off, received ticket for drunk driving, had a car accident, kept drinking after promising to stay sober, number of times being admitted at the hospital among others. The index of life course duration of drinking related problems is the age at which these items occurred for the first and most recent times. LAPS is an effective indicator to scale
