ArticleJournal of studies on alcohol and drugs2015
The prospective association between sipping alcohol by the sixth grade and later substance use.
Article in Journal of studies on alcohol and drugs, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 72 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
72 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Effects of Alcohol on EEG Activity: A Systematic Review Focused on Sex-Related Differences in Youth.Current neuropharmacology · 2025Pooled it
- Family-based prevention programmes for alcohol use in young people.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2019Pooled it
- Effectiveness of an mHealth Intervention to Help Parents Prevent Early-Onset Alcohol Involvement: Findings from a Pilot of a Randomized Waitlist Control Trial.Prevention science : the official journal of the Society for Prevention Research · 2026Trial
- The effect of sensation seeking on alcohol use among middle school students: a latent state-trait analysis.The American journal of drug and alcohol abuse · 2020Trial
- A Parenting Program to Promote an Alcohol-Free Childhood: Influence on Parents' Readiness to Prevent Child Sipping.Journal of studies on alcohol and drugs · 2016Trial
- Untangling relationships between cognitive development and child and adolescent mental health: Findings from the ABCD Study.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2026Review
- Youth Involvement in Family Drinking and Parental Permission to Sip/Taste Alcohol: A Test of an Early Risk Pathway to Perceived Parental Approval of Underage Alcohol Use.Alcohol, clinical & experimental research · 2026Article
- A Comprehensive Examination of Sex-Differentiated Correlates of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Symptoms in Late Childhood and Early Adolescence.Clinical psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science · 2026Article
- Low-Level Alcohol Consumption in Children 11-12 Years Old Is Linked to Neural Substrates Involved in Reward Processing and Inhibitory Control: Results From a Brain-Wide Association Study.Alcohol, clinical & experimental research · 2026Article
- Risk Perception and Susceptibility to Peer Influence Predict Substance Use in Early Adolescence: Findings From the ABCD Study.Journal of studies on alcohol and drugs · 2026Article
- Social Media Use Trajectories and Substance Use Experimentation: A Prospective Cohort Study.The American journal of psychiatry · 2026Article
- Perceived risk of substance use and associations with early experimentation: A latent profile analysis using ABCD study data.Drug and alcohol dependence reports · 2026Article
- Connectome-based predictive modeling of concurrent and longitudinal substance use vulnerability in adolescence.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2026Article
- Gender differences in a causal model of risk factors underlying early alcohol sipping.Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health · 2026Article
- Parental alcohol supply in early childhood and adolescent drinking: Evidence from a prospective cohort.European psychiatry : the journal of the Association of European Psychiatrists · 2026Article
- Self-reported impulsivity, task-based inhibitory control, and early sipping behaviors as longitudinal predictors of adolescent alcohol use and problems in the ABCD Study.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- Developmental Trajectories of Positive Expectancies of Cannabis Use Effects Among Early Adolescents: Longitudinal Observational Study Using Latent Class Growth Analysis.JMIR public health and surveillance · 2026Observational
- Cohort profile: the Korean Youth Health Behavior Panel Survey (KYHPS).Epidemiology and health · 2026Article
- Environmental, Health, and Psychological Factors Predict Alcohol Sipping in Childhood: A Machine Learning Analysis of the ABCD Study.JAACAP open · 2025Article
- First consumption of alcohol and drugs: When does it start, in which occasions and what can we do to prevent it?Preventive medicine reports · 2025Article
12 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveAlthough there is a clear association between early use of alcohol and short- and long-term adverse outcomes, it is unclear whether consumption of minor amounts of alcohol (less than a full drink) at a young age is prognostic of risk behaviors in later adolescence.
methodData were taken from 561 students enrolled in an ongoing prospective web-based study on alcohol initiation and progression (55% female; 25% White non-Hispanic). Based on a combination of monthly and semiannual surveys, we coded whether participants sipped alcohol before sixth grade and examined associations between early sipping and alcohol consumption by fall of ninth grade, as well as other indices of problem behavior. Participants also reported on the context of the first sipping event.
resultsThe prevalence of sipping alcohol by fall of sixth grade was 29.5%. Most participants indicated that their first sip took place at their own home, and the primary source of alcohol was an adult, usually a parent. Youth who sipped alcohol by sixth grade had significantly greater odds of consuming a full drink, getting drunk, and drinking heavily by ninth grade than nonsippers. These associations held even when we controlled for temperamental, behavioral, and environmental factors that contribute to proneness for problem behavior, which suggests that sipping is not simply a marker of underlying risk.
conclusionsOur findings that early sipping is associated with elevated odds of risky behaviors at high school entry dispute the idea of sipping as a protective factor. Offering even just a sip of alcohol may undermine messages about the unacceptability of alcohol consumption for youth.
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