From a developmental perspective, the present results also support the utility of self-administration paradigms for studying phenomena that anticipate the onset of alcohol use disorders (Zimmermann et al., 2013). For example, the current results complement findings that adolescents with the 118G variant reported stronger enhancement motives for alcohol use (Miranda et al., 2010). Studying relatively younger cohorts has particular advantages in the context of alcohol administration. A focus on younger participants reduces (but does not eliminate) the influence of drinking histories on laboratory outcomes, improving the ability to establish temporal precedence of laboratory phenotypes in relation to drinking trajectories (e.g., King et al., 2011a). While ethical considerations preclude the types of studies that might eliminate confounds related to drinking history, including young cohorts is nonetheless important for studying developmental trajectories and evaluating laboratory responses to alcohol as candidate endophenotypes.
