The major purpose of this study is to investigate the role of family attributes in enhancing or moderating the risk for substance use and juvenile delinquency in inner-city Black children. It employs a sample of inner city Black families of first and second grade children who are currently participating in a NIDA-supported prevention research study, and a subsample of older siblings from these families. Because the study focuses on families of young Black children, an etiologic model is proposed that looks at family factors as predictors of those early childhood risk behaviors that have been shown to be precursors of teen substance use and delinquency. The proposed model distinquishes between family contextual attributes (those that are believed to contribute to contextual risk such as family social status, resources and stresses) versus family relational attributes (parent-child relationship variables that are believed to mediate contextual risk). Attributes of the parents that influence the impact of both family context and relational factors on the child are also considered. The outcomes of interest are those early childhood behaviors previously identified as precursors of teen substance use and delinquency such as behavioral problems at home and school, academic difficulty, and early exposure and use of substances. Both negative (high risk) and positive (low risk) predictions are made. A risk factor approach and structural equation (EQS) procedures are used for testing the model, as well as a validation study with teen siblings.
