Thus, the current analysis serves as a cautionary tale for clinicians and as a call to action for researchers. Regarding the cautionary tale, because alcohol trajectories may represent continuous gradations rather than qualitatively distinct subgroups, early detection and intervention programs based on trajectory subtyping may be less useful than continuous liability assessments. Importantly, moving away from interpretations of trajectory groups as literally distinct entities may help discount the notion that people follow predestined pathways, and promote the hopeful alternative—that development is mutable and its continuous terrain can be traversed in many directions.
