Poor family cohesion and elevated adolescent aggression are associated with greater alcohol use in adolescence and early adulthood. In addition, evocative gene–environment correlations (rGEs) can underlie the interplay between offspring characteristics and negative family functioning, contributing to substance use. Gene–environment interplay has rarely been examined in racial/ethnic minority populations. The current study examined adolescents’ polygenic risk scores for aggression in evocative rGEs underlying aggression and family cohesion during adolescence, their contributions to alcohol use in early adulthood (n = 479), and differences between Mexican American and European American subsamples. Results suggest an evocative rGE between polygenic risk scores, aggression, and low family cohesion, with aggression contributing to low family cohesion over time. Greater family cohesion was associated with lower levels of alcohol use in early adulthood and this association was stronger for Mexican American adolescents compared to European American adolescents. Results are discussed with respect to integration of culture and racial/ethnic minority samples into genetic research and implications for alcohol use.

Deviance proneness models propose a multilevel interplay in which transactions among genetic, individual, and family risk factors place children at increased risk for substance use. We examined bidirectional transactions between impulsivity and family conflict from middle childhood to adolescence and their contributions to substance use in adolescence and emerging adulthood (n = 380). Moreover, we examined children's, mothers’, and fathers’ polygenic risk scores for behavioral undercontrol, and mothers’ and fathers’ interparental conflict and substance disorder diagnoses as predictors of these transactions. The results support a developmental cascade model in which children's polygenic risk scores predicted greater impulsivity in middle childhood. Impulsivity in middle childhood predicted greater family conflict in late childhood, which in turn predicted greater impulsivity in late adolescence. Adolescent impulsivity subsequently predicted greater substance use in emerging adulthood. Results are discussed with respect to evocative genotype–environment correlations within developmental cascades and applications to prevention efforts.