Childhood Trauma, Adolescent Alcohol Binge Drinking, and Reward Functioning Among Young Adult Drinkers

Despite evidence suggesting that childhood trauma (CT) and adolescent binge drinking may have a considerable impact on alcohol and non-alcohol reward functioning and contribute to increased alcohol use disorder (AUD) risk, studies addressing the nature of the relationship between CT, adolescent binge drinking, and reward indices are lacking. The current study evaluated associations among CT, adolescent binge drinking, subjective reward responses, and psychiatric risk among a sample of young adult drinkers. Participants were recruited and enrolled on the basis of meeting criteria for CT and adolescent binge exposure, CT and no adolescent binge exposure, no CT and adolescent binge exposure, and no history of CT or adolescent binge exposure (i.e., controls). It was hypothesized that individuals with a history of both CT and adolescent binge would exhibit the lowest non-alcohol reward and greatest alcohol reward responses compared to either condition alone, and that a history of (a) CT and (b) adolescent binge drinking would predict dampened non-alcohol reward and elevated alcohol reward responses compared to controls. A series of one-way 2 X 2 between-subjects ANCOVAs were conducted to examine the influence of CT and adolescent binge drinking on measures of reward and psychiatric risk. Contrary to expectation, there were no main or interactive effects of CT or adolescent binge history on non-alcohol reward outcomes. Adolescent binge history was associated with greater intensity of alcohol demand, suggesting higher consummatory alcohol reward. Adolescent binge history was not associated with elevated motivational alcohol reward, AUD risk, or psychiatric risk. CT related to more frequent binge drinking, depression, and alcohol coping and conformity motives. Future studies employing longitudinal methods with multi-modal reward assessments are required to illuminate patterns of reward response and alcohol use as a consequence of CT and adolescent binge drinking.