Further, empirical evidence suggests variability in the developmental course of both alcohol involvement and personality, such that some individuals do not reduce problematic alcohol use (e.g., Fillmore, 1988) or make normative and ostensibly adaptive changes in personality (e.g., Johnson, Hicks, McGue, & Iacono, 2007; Jones & Meredith, 1996; Robins et al., 2001). Littlefield, Sher, and Wood (2009) recently found that changes in neuroticism and impulsivity corresponded with changes in alcohol problems from ages 18–35, such that individuals who exhibited sharper declines in neuroticism and impulsivity across this period also tended make steeper decreases in alcohol problems. Moreover, these changes remained significant when accounting for the influence of adult role statuses (i.e., marriage and parenthood). In the same sample and across the same time span, Littlefield, Sher, and Steinley (in press) demonstrated that distinct impulsivity trajectory groups exhibited differential changes in alcohol involvement (especially from ages 18–25), such that a trajectory group characterized by significant decreases in impulsivity from ages 18–25 was more likely to undergo significant decreases in a variety of alcohol-related indices (including consumption and consequence measures) across this
