Alcohol use, across the lifespan, can be characterized by a series of transitions: from early experimentation to hazardous drinking and possible development of alcohol use disorders (AUD), or to non-problematic alcohol intake. Some of these transitions are developmentally salient: for instance, hazardous drinking is common during adolescence and early adulthood, but does not always portend problematic use in later adulthood (Degenhardt et al., 2013; Wennberg, Andersson, & Bohman, 2000). Similarly, individuals with AUD might remit, even to abstinence, or persist into later life (McCutcheon et al., 2012; Trim, Schuckit, & Smith, 2013). Furthermore, alcohol-related behavior can be broadly disarticulated into two components – the extent to which an individual consumes alcohol and the potential problems that they experience related to their intake. For instance, AUD are characterized not by excessive alcohol consumption but by measurable physiological changes that accompany addiction (e.g. withdrawal, tolerance) as well as loss of control over drinking and drinking despite physical and emotional impairment (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). These complexities underlying the life course of alcohol use and misuse pose challenges in the dissection of etiology.
