To assess EAU, participants who reported ever drinking in their lifetime were asked, “How old were you the first time you had a full drink of beer, wine or spirits?” Participants were previously told that a full drink is defined as “a standard can or stubbie of beer, a glass of wine, a nip of spirits, or any other kind of drink with alcohol in it.” The age threshold for determining EAU was based on examination of previous research reporting poor clinical outcomes associated with initiation of alcohol use before age 15 (see Hingson and White 2014, for a review;Sartor et al. 2009b) and the frequency distribution for initiation of alcohol use in the current study. Therefore, EAU was operationalized as drinking prior to age 15 which was associated with a prevalence of 20.42% (≤13: 12.14%; ≤15: 36.77%; ≤16: 60.28%). Therefore, participants received a 1 if they reported their first drink prior to age 15 (i.e., 14 years old or earlier), and a 0 if their first drink was at age 15 or older.
