Neighborhood socioeconomic status effects on adolescent alcohol outcomes using growth models: Exploring the role of parental alcoholism

Objective: There is conflicting evidence regarding the impact of neighborhood socioeconomic status (SES) on adolescent alcohol use. The current study tested whether the prospective effects of neighborhood SES on adolescent alcohol outcomes varied across parental alcoholism subgroups. Method: Data from a group of adolescents (N = 361) from an ongoing longitudinal study of children of alcoholics (COAs) and matched controls were collected at three initial annual assessments. Latent growth models were estimated with a range of related time-invariant and time-varying predictors. Results: Among non-COAs, higher neighborhood SES predicted increased rates in alcohol use and consequences, whereas among COAs, lower neighborhood SES was predictive of increased rates in alcohol use and marginally predicted rates of consequences. There were also time-specific effects of family mobility on alcohol outcomes. Conclusions: The current study provides evidence for differential effects of neighborhood SES on adolescent alcohol use and consequences for non-COAs and COAs. The group differences found in this study may help explain the equivocal findings from previous neighborhood studies, which may use samples with an unmeasured mix of high- and low-risk adolescents. Future research should identify pathways to alcohol use and problems for high- and low-risk adolescents living in neighborhoods that span the range of the socioeconomic spectrum.