Abstract
Findings from the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development study, an ongoing longitudinal cohort study of 1,037 consecutive births in Dunedin, New Zealand, will be presented. Cohort members completed comprehensive assessments on seven different occasions prior to age 18, and at ages 18, 21, 26, and 32 they also reported on their past-year symptoms of alcohol use disorder. The developmental epidemiology of alcohol dependence from age 18 to 32 will be explored. In addition, two main questions will be addressed: (1) whether there are different childhood predictors of alcohol dependence occurring during the second, third, and fourth decades of life, and (2) whether there are different childhood predictors of developmentally-limited versus persistent alcohol dependence.