Socioeconomic Status, Cognitive Tests May Predict Who Experiments With Underage Drinking

Experts have enumerated the risks of underage drinking for years, finding that it increases the risk of sexual assault, impaired judgement, and even serious injuries that can lead to death. Despite all this, young people still drink a lot — about 5.4 million people between the ages of 12 and 20 in the United States report binge drinking each year. In an effort to prevent these behaviors, a team of researchers has discovered that certain demographic factors, brain features, and cognitive functions are present in children who grow up to drink lots of alcohol.

“We were able to predict, with 74 percent accuracy, which 12-to 14-year old youth eventually went on to engage in alcohol use by late adolescence,” said Lindsay Squeglia, assistant professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Medical University of South Carolina, in a press release.