Maturing Out of Problematic Alcohol Use

By P. O'Malley. Alcohol Research and Health, 2004

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Problematic alcohol use--that is, heavy drinking, or drinking that is accompanied by unpleasant consequences--tends to increase as people go through late adolescence, peaking at about age 22 or so, and then decline as they grow older. Some researchers consider this decline, which has been studied for more than 70 years in many different countries and cultures (Fillmore 1988; Johnstone et al. 1996), a "maturing out" of problem drinking. This process is believed to result when people reach their twenties and take on the roles and responsibilities of adulthood (Bachman et al. 2002; Yamaguchi and Kandel 1985). (For information about alcohol use among young people in other cultures, see the article in this issue by Ahlstrom and Osterberg.) The transition to adult roles typically involves ending formal education and beginning employment; becoming financially independent of parents; establishing new living arrangements (alone, cohabiting, married); and getting married and starting a family. All of these events are associated with declines in problematic alcohol use. For some young people, the first transition to adulthood, however--leaving the parental home, whether to attend college or not--often coincides with an increase in heavy alcohol use (O'Malley and Johnston 2002). This sidebar first examines how leaving the parental home is associated with increases in heavy alcohol consumption, and then looks at two transitions of young adulthood that are strongly associated with declining heavy alcohol use among young adults: marriage and parenthood. Transitions to Independence Leaving Home. A variety of models have been proposed to explain how this first transition period supports or encourages problematic drinking (Schulenberg and Maggs 2002). (See the article by Schulenberg and Maggs in this issue.) Often (though by no means always), the first transition is entrance into a college environment, which seems to be particularly likely to be accompanied by heavy drinking. Researchers have found it difficult to determine whether people begin drinking more heavily in college in response to the social environment (that is, it is a socialization effect) or as a function of their own enduring personality characteristics (that is, it is a selection effect; for example, when young people who are more likely to drink are more likely to go to college) (Yamaguchi and Kandel 1985; Labouvie 1996). Both selection and socialization effects may be operating here to varying degrees, but there is little doubt that the social environment of college exerts a strong influence on student drinking. Much problematic alcohol use among college students occurs in group settings (Wechsler et al. 1995). Fraternity parties are notorious for encouraging excessive drinking, but student gatherings in bars or other settings often entail heavy drinking as well. (See the article by Saltz in this issue.) A longitudinal study by McCabe and colleagues (2005) has provided strong evidence for both selection and socialization effects among U.S. college students who join fraternities and sororities: Higher drinking rates were seen before they attended college, and membership in a fraternity or sorority was associated with considerably greater than average increases in heavy drinking. Because the social environment of college generally supports alcohol use, it is reasonable to expect that leaving college could result in declines in heavy-drinking rates (Sher et al. 2001). And, in fact, the end of formal higher education--and concomitant transitions to employment and independent living--does signal a period of maturing out of one role into a role that normally involves more responsibility and less freedom. Young people who do not attend college tend to show drinking patterns that resemble those of college students, with heavy alcohol use increasing until about age 22--particularly among those who leave the parental home--and then declining as these young people take on adult responsibilities (Bachman et al. …

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