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Childhood Trauma and Two Stages of Alcohol Use in African American and European American Women: Findings from a Female Twin Sample

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Abstract

The current investigation assessed for moderating effects of childhood trauma on genetic and environmental contributions to timing of alcohol use initiation and alcohol use disorder in African American (AA) and European American (EA) women. Data were drawn from diagnostic telephone interviews conducted with 3786 participants (14.6% AA) in a longitudinal female twin study. Childhood trauma was defined alternately as child maltreatment and more broadly to include other events (e.g., witnessing violence). Phenotypic associations between childhood trauma and alcohol outcomes were estimated using logistic regression analyses. Twin modeling was conducted to test for moderating effects of childhood trauma on the contributions of genetic and environmental factors to timing of initiation and alcohol use disorder. Under both definitions, childhood trauma was associated with early initiation (relative risk ratios: 1.90, 1.72) and alcohol use disorder (odds ratios: 1.92, 1.76). Yet gene by environment effects were observed only for child maltreatment and timing of initiation in EA women, with heritable influences less prominent in those who had experienced child maltreatment (0.35, 95% CI: 0.05–0.66 vs. 0.52, 95% CI: 0.30–0.73). We found more similarities than differences in the association of childhood trauma with alcohol outcomes across racial/ethnic groups, trauma type, and stages of alcohol use. However, findings suggest that the relative contribution of genetic factors to alcohol outcomes differs by childhood maltreatment history in EA women specifically in the earliest stage of alcohol use.

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Funding

Funding for this study was provided by grants AA090022, AA011998, AA012640, AA017688, AA017915, AA017921, AA021492, AA023549, and AA021235 from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, grants DA023668 and DA015035 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, grant HD049024 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and a grant from the Robert E. Leet and Clara Guthrie Patterson Trust. None of the funding sources had any role in the study design, the collection, analysis and interpretation of data, the writing of the report, or the decision to submit the manuscript for publication.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, 389 Whitney Avenue, New Haven, CT, 06511, USA

    Carolyn E. Sartor

  2. Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, 660 S. Euclid Avenue, Campus Box 8134, Saint Louis, MO, 63110, USA

    Carolyn E. Sartor, Julia D. Grant, Lauren R. Few, Vivia V. McCutcheon, Elliot C. Nelson, Pamela A. F. Madden, Kathleen K. Bucholz, Andrew C. Heath & Arpana Agrawal

  3. George Warren Brown School of Social Work, Washington University, St. Louis, MO, USA

    Kimberly B. Werner & Alexis E. Duncan

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  1. Carolyn E. Sartor
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  2. Julia D. Grant
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  3. Lauren R. Few
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  8. Pamela A. F. Madden
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  9. Kathleen K. Bucholz
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Correspondence to Carolyn E. Sartor.

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Sartor, C.E., Grant, J.D., Few, L.R. et al. Childhood Trauma and Two Stages of Alcohol Use in African American and European American Women: Findings from a Female Twin Sample. Prev Sci 19, 795–804 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-017-0838-5

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