and chi-square difference tests. Table 1 summarizes these
results. In general, adolescents who reported initiating alcohol
use at or before age 13 were more likely to have a
parent diagnosed with alcohol dependence or ASP, exhibit
higher levels of externalizing symptoms, and to come from
more conflictual families at the initial time point. At the
follow-up, early initiators of alcohol were more likely to
have developed alcohol and drug dependence. Thus, early
initiators had both higher levels of risk factors for alcohol
and drug dependence and higher rates of dependence
diagnoses.