The self-medication hypothesis posits that individuals will attempt to alleviate distressing symptoms by substance use (Khantzian, 1985), yet the association of depressed mood with growth in alcohol use at adolescence has been little examined. There is some evidence of an association between depression in childhood and levels of subsequent alcohol use in adolescence and young adulthood (Crum et al., 2008) for those who used any alcohol. However, in the Crum et al. study, depressed mood in childhood was assessed by only four items, two of which were nonspecific to depressed mood (namely “being in a bad mood” and “feeling crabby or cranky”), and the conduct problem control was a dichotomous measure rather than a continuous score. Fleming et al. (2008) found that higher levels of depressive symptoms in early adolescence predicted less increase in alcohol use through ages 16–17 years. Peers are posited to be a critical factor in alcohol use at adolescence, and depressed mood is related to poor social relations at this age (Capaldi, 1991); thus, we expected that depressed mood might be a protective rather than a risk factor.
