Sipping Alcohol in Early Adolescence May Contribute to Personality Changes and Depression

Newswise — Children who try alcohol may experience mental health and personality effects as they transition to early adolescence. An analysis of alcohol sampling behavior in children ages 9 to 14, published in Alcohol: Clinical and Experimental Research, found that children who had poor response inhibition and increased alcohol sipping behaviors might be more likely to have accelerated changes in personality traits and depression scores over time. The study suggests that even minimal alcohol experimentation in early adolescence may influence later alcohol use as well as personality and mental health issues.

This is the first study of latent trajectories of alcohol sipping in a large group of young adolescents and the effect of those trajectories on psychology and personality in early adolescence. Over eleven thousand children were followed for four years, from age 9 or 10 to age 13 or 14.

At age 9 to 10, three-quarters of the cohort had never had any alcohol in their lifetime, 16 percent had had one to two sips of alcohol in their lifetime, and six percent had had three or more sips in their lifetime. The number of alcohol sips trended upward over the four years.

Upon analyzing the longitudinal alcohol sipping behavior of the subjects, researchers categorized participants into three groups: a ‘no sip’ group, representing 84 percent of participants, having an alcohol sipping trajectory that remained constant at around zero sips on average; a ‘low sip’ group, making up five percent of participants, whose trajectory decreased over time, and the remaining 10 percent, the ‘high sip’ group, whose alcohol sipping trajectory steadily increased over time. 

Over the four years, the high sip group showed a monotonically increasing trajectory of depression scores when compared to the other two groups. The high sip group also had a faster rate of increase in impulsive personality trait scores, such as lack of perseverance, sensation seeking, and behavioral inhibition. Impulsive personality traits are associated with alcohol consumption and problem alcohol use in adolescents.

However, response inhibition appeared to significantly moderate the influence of alcohol sipping patterns on the trajectory of mental health and personality traits over time. MRIs of the children’s brains revealed that adolescents who sipped less over time and showed distinct bilateral patterns of activation in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex —a region of the brain responsible for cognitive control and response inhibition—showed the greatest differences in the trajectories of depression scores and personality traits compared to the high sip group. Prior studies have found that people with alcohol use disorder have poor cognitive control and response inhibition.

The analysis did not account for genetic factors, which could play an important role in the development of personality traits and mental health outcomes in adolescence. This study analyzed data from the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development study, which relied on caregiver reports of children’s behavior, which may reflect some bias. The analysis provides important insights into the impact of early alcohol consumption, even in small amounts, on adolescent development.

Alcohol sipping patterns, personality, and psychopathology in children: Moderating effects of dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC). A. Ferariu, H. Chang, A. Taylor, F. Zhang.

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