The goals of this prospective study were to clarify how and under what circumstances variation in 5-HTTLPR confers risk for alcohol-related outcomes. In three of the four models tested, level of response to alcohol, operationalized as scores on the Self-Rating of the Effects of Alcohol (First-Five) questionnaire (SRE-5; Schuckit et al., 1997a), was found to be a significant mediator, suggesting one mechanism by which variation in 5-HTTLPR transmits alcohol-related risk. In addition, parental monitoring was found to be a significant moderator of this effect, indicating that the strength and direction of this effect varies with levels of monitoring.
