Patterns and correlates of binge drinking trajectories from early adolescence to young adulthood

Latent growth mixture modeling was used to identify developmental trajectories (described in terms of demographics, exposure and resistance to a pro-drug environment, and deviant behavior) of binge drinking among 5,694 individuals who completed 6 surveys from ages 13 to 23 years: nonbingers (32%); moderate stables (37%), who had consistently low levels of bingeing; steady increasers (16%), who increased from the lowest to highest level of bingeing; adolescent bingers (9%), whose early rise in bingeing was followed by a decrease to a moderate level; and early highs (6%), who decreased from the highest level of bingeing to a moderate level. Results show considerable diversity in binge drinking patterns and the correlates of bingeing across trajectory classes.