Impulsive preschoolers at risk for teen drinking

NEW YORK, July 20 (Reuters) How preschoolers behave may help predict whether they will drink alcohol or use illegal drugs like marijuana in adolescence, research hints.

In a long-term study, children who had less control over their behaviour and impulses between 3 and 5 years of age and those who gained behavioural control more slowly were more likely to drink alcohol at age 14. They were also more likely to develop an alcohol problem and try illicit drugs.

Moreover, adolescents with higher resiliency in early childhood meaning they were flexible and could readily adapt to a changing environment were less apt to start drinking alcohol in the early teenage years.

These findings, reported in the journal Child Development, are ''very important because we know that early drinking (at age 14 or earlier) is associated with a greater likelihood for alcohol abuse or dependence in adulthood,'' Dr Maria M Wong from Idaho State University said in a statement from the Society for Research in Child Development.

''If early childhood behaviours such as behavioural control and resiliency put individuals at risk for alcohol and drug use, then programmes aimed at changing those behaviours at an early age may protect individuals from experimenting with drugs and alcohol later on,'' she added.

Wong and colleagues examined the ''developmental trajectories'' of behavioural control and resiliency from early childhood to adolescence and their effects on early substance use in 514 children of alcoholics and a similar group of children without an alcoholic parent.

From the time the children were 3 to 5 years of age to the time they reached 12 to 14 years of age, trained interviewers periodically rated the children's ability to control their impulses and behaviour, and their flexibility in adapting to environmental demands. Once the children were adolescents, they provided information on their drinking and drug use.

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