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PhD Studentship: Adolescent alcohol beverage preferences and related harms: A latent class analysis

First published: 09 May 2019 | Last updated: 20 May 2019

H. Rose; S. Coulton; M. Lynskey; C. Drummond

Funders:         Society for the Study of Addiction

Alcohol Research UK

Latent class analysis (LCA) was applied to indicators of beverage choice to examine whether qualitatively distinct subgroups of adolescents could be identified on the basis beverage preference. The relationship between beverage choice latent classes and outcomes of harm including, the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) were also examined. This research aims to identify distinctive drinking patterns and harms associated in adolescent alcohol users in addition to the more traditional quantity-frequency measures.

Adolescents attending Emergency Departments between 10 and 17 years who had consumed alcohol in the past 3 months were drawn from the SIPS Junior database (n=1351). Dichotomous indicators of whether they had drunk beer, cider, alcopops, wine or spirits in the past 3 months were included in LCA, conducted for males and females separately.

LCA identified 3 latent classes for both males and females.  Male latent classes demonstrated similar beverage preferences, with beer being the most prevalent drink type.  Spirits were the second most prevalent drink type consumed in both male class 1 (14.0%) and class 3 (12.7%), while cider was the second most prevalent in class 2 (19.2%).  Wine and alcopops were the least prevalent beverage type in all male classes.  Class 1 females were the most prevalent class (56.1%) characterized by a greater prevalence of spirit consumption  (26.6%) and alcopops (26.1%).  Females in class 2 (17.6%) represented the smallest female class characterised by a preference for spirits (12.5%) and cider (11.3%), while class 3 (26.2%) had a greater prevalence of wine drinkers (16.2%).  Multinomial regressions indicated varying levels of risk associated with beverage choice latent classes, including different rates of hazardous alcohol use indicated by the AUDIT.

There is a need to identify distinctive alcohol drinking patterns or profiles in adolescence that considers multivariate indicators in addition to the more traditional quantity-frequency measures. LCA identified subgroups of adolescents characterised by distinct patterns of beverage choice. Latent class membership was associated with varying risks for alcohol related harm.

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Report Author

Ms Hannah Rose

Research Assistant


A graduate in psychology and criminology Hannah has several years’ experience working across a range of clinical and research settings including mental health, autistic spectrum disorders and brain injury.

PhD project aims

Hannah is a second year PhD student examining the impact of alcohol consumption on adolescent neuropsychological development under the supervision of Professor Colin Drummond, Professor Simon Coulton and Professor Michael Lynskey. The research programme will draw from two established research programmes: SIPS Junior, a screening and prevalence survey of alcohol consumption and alcohol disorder in adolescents attending Emergency Departments (http://www.sipsjunior.net/) and IMAGEN, a European Commission funded research programme on risk taking behaviours in adolescents (http://www.imagen-europe.com/). Data from 7000 adolescents who use alcohol and controls will be reviewed, integrating multiple metrics of alcohol use into a number of latent classes. This will lead to the full characterisation and an empirically derived multi-dimensional measure of adolescent drinking behaviours which will be used to examine the impact of alcohol on neuropsychological functioning in this cohort both cross-sectionally and longitudinally at a developmentally crucial time in adolescence

Background literature/previous work

Prior to undertaking her current studies at Kings College London, Hannah worked as an Assistant Psychologist for South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust within the Drug and Alcohol Service. During this role, a 6 month secondment within the Addictions Department at Kings College London provided an opportunity to pursue a PhD within her field of interest with the support of the Society for the Study of Addictions studentship award.

Work plan and timeline

Over the next year the focus of the project will move on to Study II and III, which aim to apply the Latent Classes established within Study I to the European Commission funded IMAGEN research project. Plans include:

Characterise IMAGEN cohort using latent classes established in study I reflecting increasing severity of alcohol use in this cohort.
Further analysis will aim to develop and refine full characterisation of drinking patterns reflecting increasing severity of alcohol use in adolescents from the IMAGEN study and establish a model of best fit for further analysis.
Multivariate analysis will explore how these defined cluster groups relate to other measures of harm and identify differences in neurocognitive functioning between these groups reflecting increasing levels of alcohol use.
Longitudinal Transitional Analysis will be used to examine the transitions of latent class memberships of alcohol behaviours over a 5 year period (14-19 years old) in n=2000 adolescents.
Multi variate analysis will explore how defined latent classes, probability of group membership and the transitions between these classes over a 5 year period relate to other measures of harm and identify differences in neuropsychological functioning.
Establish empirically derived dimensional measure of drinking patterns in adolescents
Relevance of your work for the field

Hannah’s research proposes to elucidate the nature, prevalence and mechanisms of alcohol related harm on neuropsychological development in adolescents and ultimately inform alcohol consumption guidelines and interventions for adolescents to prevent or reduce alcohol involvement in this population.

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