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Maternal Patterns of Postpartum Alcohol Consumption by Age: A Longitudinal Analysis of Adult Urban Mothers

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Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate a) longitudinal patterns of maternal postpartum alcohol use as well as its variation by maternal age at child birth and b) within maternal age groups, the association between other maternal characteristics and alcohol use patterns for the purposes of informed prevention design. Study sample consists of 3397 mothers from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study representing medium and large US urban areas. Maternal drinking and binge drinking were measured at child age 1, 3, and 5 years. We conducted separate longitudinal latent class analysis within each of the three pre-determined maternal age groups (ages 20–25, n = 1717; ages 26–35, n = 1367; ages 36+, n = 313). Results revealed different class structures for maternal age groups. While two classes (NB [non-binge]-drinkers and LL [low-level]-drinkers) were identified for mothers in each age group, a third class (binge drinkers) was separately distinguished for the two older age groups. Whereas binge drinking rates appear to remain stable over the 5 years postdelivery for mothers who gave birth in their early twenties, mothers ages 26 and older increasingly engaged in binge drinking over time, surpassing the binge drinking behavior of younger mothers. Depression significantly increases the odds of being a NB-drinker for the 20–25 age group and that of being a binge drinker for the 36+ age group, whereas smoking during pregnancy is associated with subsequent binge drinking only for mothers ages 20–25. Findings highlight the importance of distinguishing risk factors by maternal age groups for drinking while parenting a young child, to inform the design of intervention strategies tailored to mothers of particular ages.

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Notes

  1. Austin, TX; Baltimore, MD; Boston, MA; Chicago, IL; Corpus Christi, TX; Indianapolis, IN; Jacksonville, FL; Nashville, TN; New York, NY; Norfolk, VA; Philadelphia, PA; Pittsburgh, PA; Richmond, VA; San Antonio, TX; San Jose, CA; Toledo, OH; Detroit, MI; Milwaukee, WI; Newark, NJ; Oakland, CA; and Jacksonville, FL.

  2. Bivariate coverage measures the coverage of the data points between two variables. For example, a bivariate coverage of 0.996 between drinking measured at year 1 and that measure at year 3 indicates that 99.6 % of the sample has valid measures of drinking at both time points. A bivariate coverage higher than 0.1 is necessary for efficient FIML estimation. In this sample, the bivariate coverage is greater than 0.8 for all three age groups, which indicates sufficiently high coverage.

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Acknowledgments

The research was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (grant 1 R01 DA 030496-01A1, Social Ecology of Maternal Substance Use, to principal investigator Dr. Elizabeth A. Mumford). Our thanks to Kaitlyn Krivitzky, Emily F. White, and Hannah Joseph for reviewing the literature supporting this paper and preparing the tables and figures. We also appreciate the consultations provided by Dr. Pradip Muhuri, SAMHSA, regarding estimates of similar outcomes in the National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Public Health Research, NORC at the University of Chicago, 4350 East-west Highway, 8th Floor, Bethesda, MD, 20814, USA

    Weiwei Liu & Elizabeth A. Mumford

  2. American Institutes for Research, Washington DC, USA

    Hanno Petras

  3. Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA

    Hanno Petras

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  1. Weiwei Liu
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Correspondence to Weiwei Liu.

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Liu, W., Mumford, E.A. & Petras, H. Maternal Patterns of Postpartum Alcohol Consumption by Age: A Longitudinal Analysis of Adult Urban Mothers. Prev Sci 16, 353–363 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-014-0522-y

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