More recently, Waldron and colleagues (Waldron et al., 2014a) examined timing of alcohol use and first intoxication in a sample of adolescent offspring of male and female Australian twins. Here, a time-varying measure of parental separation or divorce was modeled. Results indicated pronounced effects of parental separation on risk of alcohol initiation and intoxication during very early adolescence (before age 13) and moderate effects from middle adolescence onward, when controlling for genetic and environmental risks from parental alcohol and cannabis dependence as part of the OOT design. Unfortunately, risk of alcohol dependence was not examined as few offspring had aged through the period of highest risk for developing problem use.
