A new study suggests that children with better mental and verbal ability than the others are most likely to get involved in early drinking when they grow up. They also higher alcohol consumption than those who have later developed their abilities.
Antti Latvala, lead author of the study and a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki in Finland, and his colleagues followed 3,000 twins who showed differences in their abilities. The other learned to speak ahead than the other.
The researchers conducted interviews with the parents to identify the age when the twins started speaking, age when they began reading, and details of their language skills when studying. They also asked the twins to self- report about their drinking habits and alcohol-related problems as they were growing up.
Other factors that may affect the result of their findings such as birth order and birth weight were also factored in for a more accurate analysis.
Their findings reveal that children who had better mental and verbal ability than their counterpart reported more drinking during adulthood especially when they turned 18. They also have more friends who also drink which suggests that peer association is also related to their early drinking habits. On the other hand, children who had developed their abilities later had lesser friends.
"People have this impression that intelligence is somehow related to being introverted and bookwormish," Latvala said to TIME. "But if you look at these large studies they definitely find this association with sensation-seeking and seeking different kind of experiences. [They're] trying to learn new things. It could be related to the nature of intelligence."
Though the result may sound alarming, the researchers clarified that they didn't see any signs of alcohol addiction on the participants but they ruled out that higher intelligence may have made them more willing to experiment new things.
The study was published in the Sept. 13 issue of the online journal Alcoholism.
