Abstract
Research indicates that externalizing and internalizing pathways emanated in childhood are connected to later drinking behaviors; however, no study has investigated the contemporaneous effects of the two pathways using a person-centered approach that categorizes individuals based on their various developmental patterns. This study examined the distinct patterns of concurrent development of aggression and depressive symptoms in childhood and their associations with later drinking behaviors using data from a 15-year Taiwanese cohort since age 8 (N = 2854, 49% females). Group-based multi-trajectory modeling identified four aggressive-depressive trajectory groups: Moderate, Aggressive, Depressive, and Comorbid, which manifested a sequential risk gradient in alcohol use. Comorbid group, characterized by persistently high levels of aggression and depressive symptoms, has the highest levels of alcohol use and drinking problems and the earliest onset of drinking. Aggressive and Depressive groups have higher levels of alcohol use and earlier onset of drinking than Moderate group. These findings imply the importance of monitoring aggression and depressive symptoms simultaneously and continually in childhood to prevent later drinking.
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Acknowledgements
This research was supported by the National Health Research Institute and Health Promotion Administration of Taiwan (HP-090-SG-03, HP-091-SG-02, HP-092-PP-07, HP-093-PP-03, HP-094-PP-12, HD-095-PP-03, HD-096-PP-03, HD-097-PP-03, HD-098-PP-03, PH-099-PP-15, PH-100-PP-15, PH-101-PP-15, PH-102-PP-16, PH-103-PP-17, PH-104-PP-16, and PH-105-PP-16). The authors thank the entire study team of the CABLE project and the families that participated in the project.
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This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan (MOST 108-2410-H-003-137). The funding source played no role in the study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation of data, in the writing of the articles, and in the decision to submit articles for publication.
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WW conceived of the study, participated in its design, performed the statistical analysis and drafted the manuscript; HH participated in the design and helped to draft the manuscript; HC collected data and helped to draft the manuscript; HL conceived of the study and provided critical revision of the manuscript; AB conceived of the study, participated in its design, and helped to draft the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Appendix
Appendix
This appendix documents the goodness-of-fit indices that guided the model selection process. The BIC and adjusted BIC values became progressively less negative from the 2-group to the 10-group model. Bayes factors were greater than 10 for all models. However, the improvement in BIC began to level off after the 4-group model. Trajectory shapes and confidence intervals of trajectories of the 4-group and the 5-group models were further compared. The 4-group model was chosen based on the principle of parsimony.
The values of Adjusted BIC as a function of the number of groups of aggressive-depressive trajectories
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Wu, Wc., Hsieh, HF., Chang, Hy. et al. Aggressive-Depressive Trajectories in Childhood and Their Associations with Drinking Behaviors and Problems in Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood. J Youth Adolescence 49, 1897–1912 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-020-01242-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-020-01242-w