Polygenic Effects on Individual Rule Breaking, Peer Rule Breaking, and Alcohol Sips Across Early Adolescence in the ABCD Study

Alcohol use emerges during early adolescence and is strongly associated with individual and peer risky, delinquent, and rule breaking behaviors. Genetic predisposition for risky behavior contributes to individual rule breaking in adolescence and can also evoke peer rule breaking or lead youth to select into delinquent peer groups via gene-environment correlations (rGE), collectively increasing risk for alcohol use. Little research has examined whether genetic predisposition for risky behavior contributes to individual and peer rule breaking behavior in developmental pathways to alcohol use in early adolescence or in large diverse racial/ethnic populations. To address this, polygenic scores for risky behavior were considered predictors of individual rule breaking, peer rule breaking, and alcohol sips using data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study at age 11–12 and 12–13 in a cross-time cross-lagged model. This was examined separately in European American (EA; n = 5113; 47% female), African American (AA; n = 1159; 50% female), and Hispanic/Latinx (Latinx; n = 1624; 48% female) subgroups accounting for sociodemographic covariates and genetic ancestry principal components. Polygenic scores were positively associated with all constructs in EAs, with individual rule breaking at age 11–12 in AAs and Latinx, and with alcohol sips at age 11–12 in Latinx. Individual and peer rule breaking were associated with one another across time only in the EA subgroup. In all subgroups, peer rule breaking at 12–13 was associated with alcohol sips at 12–13. Results indicate that alcohol sips in early adolescence are associated with individual and peer rule breaking with rGE implicated in EAs.