The current study examined alcohol use initiation in relation to childhood trauma in Black and White girls followed longitudinally from childhood through adolescence. We made use of an all-female sample because of its utility in identifying risk pathways that may be more common among girls, as suggested by the elevated prevalence of some forms of childhood trauma (e.g., sexual abuse) [26] and gender differences in timing of alcohol use onset [4,27]. We hypothesized that (1) the magnitude of association between childhood trauma and alcohol use initiation would be lower in Black than White girls and (2) indicators of low SES and neighborhood disadvantage would account for a significant degree of the association between childhood trauma and alcohol use. Furthermore, based on the assumption that witnessing violence would be more closely linked than interpersonal trauma (e.g., physical abuse, sexual assault) to living in disadvantaged neighborhoods, we also anticipated that low SES and neighborhood factors would account for the link between childhood trauma and alcohol use initiation to an even greater extent for childhood trauma defined more broadly to include events such
