The present study has several strengths, including a design that permits stronger conclusions than has previously been possible about the longitudinal role of families in the early growth of alcohol use in children. The lagged effects are probably conservative estimates given the comparatively long delay. Attrition and the amount of missing data were low and the design included controls for known strong predictors of alcohol use. In this study, parental alcohol use was not measured. However, the direct impact of parent alcohol misuse on adolescent alcohol misuse is small and mediated through parental support and monitoring [16]. While family emotional climate was unrelated to boys’ alcohol use, family emotional climate may be important for boys at other developmental periods or for other health risk behaviors. Finally, the study relied on self-report data without collateral reports. Although “non-honest” participants were excluded, responses for some participants may have limited reliability.
