Childhood Predictors of Weekly Alcohol Use in Adulthood: A Cross-National Analysis

This study presents a cross-national analysis of the childhood antecedents of alcohol use in adulthood across 22 diverse countries included in the first wave of the Global Flourishing Study. This pre-registered study aimed to assess how 13 childhood predictors (age, gender, parental marital status/family structure, religious service attendance at age 12, relationship with mother, relationship with father, outsider growing up, abuse, self-rated health growing up, subjective financial status growing up, immigration status, and, when available, race/ethnicity and religious affiliation growing up) relate with weekly adult alcohol consumption across the 22 countries. As hypothesized, the strength and the direction of associations between the childhood predictors and weekly alcohol use varied by country, with universal robust associations across those countries for male gender and experiencing abuse in childhood, and more varied associations across countries for other childhood factors. These results are discussed in light of considerations related to possible cultural, economic, and policy influences on alcohol use from a global perspective. The results of this study are expected to inform discussions of international public health strategies as well as contribute to the development of targeted interventions that may mitigate the risk factors for alcohol use/abuse in adulthood.