Endorsement of spending a great deal of time drinking and continuing to drink despite problems indicates that alcohol seeking, an aspect of the alcohol dependence syndrome articulated by Edwards and Gross (1976), may be highly salient to some members of class 3. In the presence of disinhibited personality traits and drinking motives, these individuals are at a much higher risk of a serious alcohol problem in the future. A previous prospective study of undergraduates found that behavioral undercontrol strongly predicts the number of alcohol dependence criteria endorsed (Grekin and Sher, 2006) and this result supports earlier cross-sectional studies as reviewed in Baer (2002). Although class 2 members were either alcohol dependent or considered “diagnostic orphans”, they tended not to endorse as many of the disinhibited personality traits and drinking motives as those in class 3, suggesting this group may be at lower risk. Members of class 2 are likely at some risk though. Results from a national sample of young adults indicate that diagnostic orphan status is predictive of meeting AUD criteria subsequently (Harford et al., 2010).
