摘要：Objectives. We assessed the relation of alcohol consumption in young adulthood to problem alcohol consumption 10 years later and to educational attainment and labor market outcomes at midlife. We considered whether these relations differ between Blacks and Whites. Methods. We classified individuals on the basis of their drinking frequency patterns with data from the 1982 to 1984 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (respondents aged 19–27 years). We assessed alcohol consumption from the 1991 reinterview (respondents aged 26–34 years) and midlife outcomes from the 2006 reinterview (respondents aged 41–49 years). Results. Black men who consumed 12 or more drinks per week at baseline had lower earnings at midlife, but no corresponding relation for Black women or Whites was found. Black men and Black women who consumed 12 or more drinks per week at baseline had lower occupational attainment than did White male non-drinkers and White female non-drinkers, respectively, but this result was not statistically significant. Conclusions. The relation between alcohol consumption in young adulthood and important outcomes at midlife differed between Blacks and Whites and between Black men and Black women, although Blacks’ alcohol consumption at baseline was lower on average than was that of Whites. Alcohol consumption is relatively high among individuals in college or of college age. 1 – 4 The short-term consequences of heavy drinking—emergency room visits, 5 intimate partner violence, 6 – 8 and motor vehicle fatalities, 9 , 10 among others—are well documented. With a few exceptions, 11 , 12 until recently a lack of longitudinal data has inhibited researchers’ ability to track events occurring much later in the life course that are associated with alcohol consumption levels in early adulthood. The alcohol consumption of Blacks tends to be similar to or less than that of Whites. 13 – 18 However, this generalization obscures more subtle differences. For one, there is less of a decline in alcohol consumption after the early 20s among Blacks than Whites. 19 Some studies, for example, of mortality and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, 20 , 21 have supported a conclusion of no difference between Blacks and Whites in the relation between alcohol consumption and various outcomes. However, other studies, which focused on alcohol use in early adulthood and subsequent occupational attainment (an index of the occupation's prestige), have found that heavy alcohol use in early adulthood is associated with lower occupational attainment in Blacks but not in Whites. 22 , 23 These results came from 1 longitudinal database—the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults study—which was drawn from residents of 4 geographically disperse US cities. Race is a social, not a biological, construct. There is substantially more variation genetically within than among racial categories. 24 Yet previous research has documented racial differences in psychosocial factors, which are highly correlated with both baseline drinking and long-term drinking trajectories. 19 , 23 , 25 , 26 Important differences in outcomes among Blacks versus Whites have also been reported. 22 , 23 , 27 – 29 We investigated the relations of alcohol consumption to educational attainment and labor market outcomes at midlife and how these relations differ between Blacks and Whites. We used national longitudinal data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79) to assess (1) whether there are relations between an individual alcohol consumption level at 19 to 27 years of age and various outcomes at later stages in the life course (alcohol consumption, abuse, and dependence; educational attainment; occupational attainment; and earnings), and (2) whether these relations differ between Blacks and Whites in the full sample and when stratified by gender.
