The alcohol indicators were assessed by the boys’ reports in the youth’s yearly interview of any use, frequency, and typical amount of use of alcohol, including use of beer, wine, or hard liquor, over the past year during middle school (ages 11 to 14 years) and high school (ages 15 to 18 years). For each type of alcohol, the youth was asked (a) whether he had drunk any in the past year (e.g., “Have you tried beer, even a sip, in the last year?”); (b) for users, the number of times used in the past year (any responses over 365 were recoded to 365); and (c) how much he usually drank each time (i.e., less than one unit, one unit, two units, three units, four to five units, six units or more). The unit of volume was one can or bottle for beer, one glass for wine, and one drink (shot) for hard liquor. Frequency was multiplied by the amount usually consumed – taking into account the serving sizes for beer, wine, and hard liquor due to differences across these
