Adverse childhood experiences and sipping alcohol in U.S. Children: Findings from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study

Jason M Nagata; Natalia Smith; Omar M Sajjad; Gabriel Zamora; Julia H Raney; Kyle T Ganson; Alexander Testa; Eric Vittinghoff; Dylan B Jackson

doi:10.1016/j.pmedr.2023.102153

Adverse childhood experiences and sipping alcohol in U.S. Children: Findings from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study

Prev Med Rep. 2023 Feb 17:32:102153. doi: 10.1016/j.pmedr.2023.102153. eCollection 2023 Apr.

Authors

Jason M Nagata¹, Natalia Smith¹, Omar M Sajjad², Gabriel Zamora¹, Julia H Raney¹, Kyle T Ganson³, Alexander Testa⁴, Eric Vittinghoff⁵, Dylan B Jackson⁶

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pediatrics, University of California, San Francisco, 550 16th Street, 4th Floor, Box 0503, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA.
² Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth College, 1 Rope Ferry Rd, Hanover, NH 03755, USA.
³ Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto, 246 Bloor St W, Toronto, ON M5S 1V4, Canada.
⁴ Department of Management, Policy and Community Health, University of Texas Health, Science Center at Houston, 7000 Fannin St, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
⁵ Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California, San Francisco, 550 16th Street, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA.
⁶ Department of Population, Family, and Reproductive Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, 615 N Wolfe St, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA.

Abstract

The objective of this study was to explore the relationship between accumulating adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and sipping alcohol in a large, nationwide sample of 9-to-10-year-old U.S. children. We analyzed data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study (2016-2018). Of 10,853 children (49.1 % female), 23.4 % reported ever sipping alcohol. A greater ACE score was associated with a higher risk of sipping alcohol. Having 4 or more ACEs placed children at 1.27 times the risk (95 % CI 1.11-1.45) of sipping alcohol compared to children with no ACEs. Among the nine distinct ACEs examined, household violence (Risk Ratio [RR] = 1.13, 95 % CI 1.04-1.22) and household alcohol abuse (RR = 1.14, 95 % CI 1.05-1.22) were associated with sipping alcohol during childhood. Our findings indicate a need for increased clinical attention to alcohol sipping among ACE-exposed children.

Keywords: ABCD, Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development study; ACEs, Adverse childhood experiences; Adverse childhood experiences; Alcohol; Childhood; Pediatrics; Sipping; Substance use.