1. Research on the relationship between childhood sleep problems and substance use in adolescents and young adults is limited. This knowledge gap has been recognized by the National Institute of Health (NIH, 2006). We examined the effects of childhood sleep problems and parental alcoholism on binge drinking in adolescence. 292 boys and 94 girls from a community sample of children of alcoholics and controls participated in the study. This study is a part of the Michigan Longitudinal Study; an ongoing study of the development of risk for alcohol and other substance use disorders (Zucker & Fitzgerald, 2002). Sleep problems in early childhood (ages 3-8) were measured by maternal ratings on the Child Behavior Checklist (Achenbach, 1991a). Two items (having trouble sleeping, overtiredness) were analyzed (0 = no; 1 = yes). Self-report of the same two sleep items were measured by the Youth Self Report (Achenbach, 1991b). Parental lifetime DSM - IV alcoholism diagnosis was assessed by the Diagnostic Interview Schedule - III, the Short Michigan Alcohol Screening Test (Selzer, Vinokur, & Rooijen, 1975), the Diagnostic Interview Schedule - III (Robins et al., 1980), and the Drinking and Drug History Questionnaire (Zucker, Fitzgerald, & Noll, 1990) at the first wave of assessment (0 = no alcoholic parent; 1 = either parent was alcoholic). Adolescent binge drinking information (ages 15-17 and 18-20) was gathered by the Drinking and Drug Use Questionnaire (Zucker & Fitzgerald, 2002). Participants were asked to indicate the number of times that they had gone on a binge of constant drinking for 2 or more days in the last three years. We used two-level mixed models for all analyses. Two- level mixed models take into account the clustering nature of the sample, i.e., each family had 1.77 children who participated in the study. Number of binge drinking days was inversely transformed due to its positive skewness. Childhood sleep problems, parental alcoholism, gender, age of participants, sleep problems x parental alcoholism interaction, sleep problems x gender interaction and parental alcoholism x gender interaction were used as predictors. The results are presented in Table 1. Older participants were more likely than younger participants to report higher frequency of binge drinking in both adolescence and young adulthood. Having a parent who was an alcoholic significantly predicted binge drinking days in adolescence. Female participants were less likely than male participants to report binge drinking in young adulthood. Sleep problems in adolescence was not related to binge drinking days. Controlling for parental alcoholism, gender, age, and sleep problems in adolescence, overtiredness in childhood significantly predicted number of binge drinking days in both adolescence and young adulthood. Previous research (Wong et al., 2004, 2008) has shown that childhood sleep problems are a risk factor for early onset of alcohol use. Findings from this study suggest that childhood sleep problems may also be a risk factor for binge drinking. It is important to increase public awareness of the significance of sleep problems in children and their potential effect on substance use and abuse. Parents, educators, and counselors are encouraged to help children deal with sleep deprivation and poor sleep. Seeking help from health care professionals may be necessary to deal with persistent sleep problems. This work was supported by grants from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (AA016851, AA00304, and AA07065). EFFECTS OF CHILDHOOD SLEEP PROBLEMS AND PARENTAL ALCOHOLISM ON BINGE DRINKING IN ADOLESCENCE AND YOUNG ADULTHOOD M.M. Wong 1 ; K. J. Brower 2 ; & R.A. Zucker 3. 1 I daho State University, Department of Psychology, Pocatello, ID 83209. 2,3 University of Michigan Addiction Research Center, Ann Arbor, MI 48108. Introduction Participants Measures Data Analysis Discussion Acknowledgement Results Table 1 Multi-level model predicting binge drinking days at ages 15 - 17 and 18 - 20 years of age Variable/Effect Binge Drinking Days a ages 15 - 17 Binge Drinking Days a ages 18 - 20 Fixed effects (parameter coefficients) Fixed effect intercept 1.193 (0.073)*** 0.805 (0.094)*** Level 1 Variables Trouble sleeping in childhood 0.076 (0.073) 0.084 (0.091) Overtiredness in childhood- 0.103 (0.051)*- 0.151 (0.064)* Trouble sleeping in adolescence- 0.028 (0.052)- 0.037 (0.066) Overtiredness in adolescence- 0.029 (0.045)- 0.007 (0.063) Age wave 5- 0.178 (0.024)***- 0.093 (0.027)** Gender- 0.064 (0.049)- 0.232 (0.077)** Level 2 variables Parental alcoholism- 0.187 (0.054)**- 0.045 (0.063) Random Effects (variance components) Level 1 effect, r ij residual 0.113 (0.020)*** 0.184 (0.017)*** Level 2 intercept, u 0j intercept 0.040 (0.020)* 0.000 (0.000) Note. * p <.05. ** p <.01. *** p <.001; a inverse transformation Results Overtiredness in Childhood Binge Drinking Days in Adolescence b and Young Adulthood c - 0.103 (0.051) p <.05 b - 0.151 (0.064) p <.05 c