Studies on sex differences in the effect of FH in adult samples are relatively limited. There is prior evidence that the effects of FH are stronger in males than females, particularly when the effects of childhood exposure to family drinking are controlled (Light, Irvine, & Kjerulf, 1996). We know less about the influence of FH on adult drinking behaviors in non-White populations, as demonstrated by a 2012 meta-analysis in college students which found only four of 53 study samples were fully non-White, as were fewer than one in four participants across studies (Elliott et al., 2012). There also is a gap in current scientific knowledge about FH effects later in life, as most analyses of age-related genetic effects to date focus on adolescence and young adulthood (Kendler et al., 2015, Thomas et al., 2018, Khoddam et al., 2015, Irons et al., 2012), with few examples of studies that include adults at midlife or older ages (Russell, Cooper, & Frone, 1990).
