Limited Evidence of Associations Between Executive Functioning and Alcohol Involvement In UK Adolescents.

Sam Burton,Laura Baines,Jo-Anne Puddephatt,Florence Sheen,Andrew Jones,Jasmine G Warren

doi:10.1093/alcalc/agab020

Abstract

AimsDeficits in motor inhibitory control and working memory have been hypothesized to be both a cause and consequence of heavy alcohol use. Adolescence is a critical developmental stage for inhibitory control and working memory, and it is also a stage when individuals are most likely to initiate alcohol use. This study aimed to examine whether inhibitory control and working memory would predict alcohol use and involvement in a group of UK adolescents.MethodsWe recruited 220 (N = 178, female) adolescents, aged between 16 and 18, from eight higher education settings in the Merseyside region of the UK. Alcohol use was examined using the Timeline Follow-Back and involvement (and related problems) using the Adolescent Alcohol Involvement Scale. A reward-based inhibitory control task (Go/No-Go) was used to examine the inhibition and reward sensitivity, and a self-ordered pointing task was used to measure working memory.ResultsMultiple regression demonstrated that neither inhibitory control (b = 0.02 (95% confidence interval (CI): −0.21, 0.24)) nor working memory (b = −0.12 (95% CI: −0.30, 0.07)) were significant predictors of alcohol use (units consumed). Inhibitory control (b = 0.61 (95% CI: 0.12, 1.09), specifically, in the no reward condition and school deprivation (b = 0.67 (95% CI: 0.06, 1.28) significantly predicted alcohol-related problems.ConclusionsOur findings demonstrated limited evidence that deficits in specific mechanisms of executive functioning (i.e. motor inhibition and working memory) were associated with alcohol-related problems in UK adolescents. This study adds to an increasing body of literature suggesting weak or non-existent links between inhibitory control, working memory and alcohol use.

Highlights

In the UK, initial experimentation with alcohol typically begins during early adolescence (Fernie et al, 2013)
Fifteen (6.82%) of the participants were classified as heavy drinkers, in accordance with UK guidelines, having drunk 28 or more units over a 2-week period
There was a significant difference in the commission errors between the reward (M = 6.48, SD = 4.43) and no reward (M = 5.18, SD = 3.82) conditions (t(209) = 4.84, P < 0.001, d = 0.31), and this result remained significant with commission error outliers in the sample (t(219) = 4.97, P < 0.001)

Summary

Introduction

In the UK, initial experimentation with alcohol typically begins during early adolescence (Fernie et al, 2013). Recent work suggests that alcohol consumption is on the decline in youth drinkers in the UK (Oldham et al, 2019), with similar findings from Europe and North America (Norstrom and Svensson, 2014; Raninen et al, 2014; Looze et al, 2015); the prevalence of adolescent drinking is still a concern, given the associations with a range of negative health outcomes (Zeigler et al, 2005)

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Results

Conclusion