OBJECTIVE Most young people start to drink alcohol in adolescence and increase their consumption until their early 20s. The present study meta-analyzed results of longitudinal studies across the age-range of 10 to 25 years. METHODS A systematic search in the PsycInfo, PSYNDEX and Web of Science data bases resulted in 513 studies that were included in multi level meta-analysis. RESULTS On average, alcohol consumption increased by .21 standard deviation units per year with the strongest increase at the age of 12 to 13 years. Regarding cumulative change, drinking peaked around 22 years. Drinking started to decline at the age of 24 years with minor changes being observed in 24- and 25-year-olds. Female participants increased their consumption less than their male peers, but gender differences were very small. Weaker increases inof drinking were found in countries with higher minimum legal age of buying alcohol. Passing the minimum legal age of 16 years was associated with a stronger immediate increase in drinking compared to countries with higher minimum legal age while passing higher minimum legal ages had no effect on alcohol consumption. In US samples, smaller increases inof drinking were observed in more recent studies. CONCLUSIONS It is concluded that Pprevention must has to start before the age of 12. Only passing a low minimum legal age of drinking seems have a short-term effect on alcohol consumption.

中文翻译：

---

青春期和成年初期酒精消费量的变化 - 荟萃分析。

目标 大多数年轻人在青春期开始饮酒，并在 20 岁出头之前增加饮酒量。本研究对 10 至 25 岁年龄范围的纵向研究结果进行了荟萃分析。方法 对 PsycInfo、PSYNDEX 和 Web of Science 数据库进行系统搜索，得出 513 项研究，这些研究被纳入多层次荟萃分析中。结果 平均而言，饮酒量每年增加 0.21 个标准差单位，其中 12 至 13 岁的增幅最为强劲。就累积变化而言，饮酒量在 22 年左右达到顶峰。饮酒量从 24 岁起开始下降，24 岁和 25 岁的人饮酒量略有变化。女性参与者的消费增幅低于男性，但性别差异非常小。在最低合法饮酒年龄较高的国家，饮酒量增长较弱。与最低法定年龄较高的国家相比，超过 16 岁的最低法定年龄与饮酒量立即增加有关，而超过最低法定年龄较高的国家对饮酒量没有影响。在美国样本中，最近的研究发现饮酒量增加幅度较小。结论 结论是，预防必须在 12 岁之前开始。只有超过较低的最低法定饮酒年龄似乎才会对饮酒量产生短期影响。