This competing renewal has four aims directed at two cohorts of female subjects. One cohort consists of young adult females (age 19-23) who qualified as adolescents for a DSM-III-R diagnosis of Psychoactive Substance Use Disorder (PSUD) (N = 200) or had no drug abuse or other psychiatric diagnosis (normal) (N-100). This 5-year follow-up study has two main objectives: (1) Investigate mating pattern with respect to homogamy for drug use, personality traits associated with drug abuse, and reactive aggression as it relates to female victimization by her intimate partner; and, [2) Determine outcomes in young adulthood with respect to substance involvement, psychiatric disorder, risky sexual behavior, violence, and criminality. This research is a follow-up of subjects who participated in this project during years 01-05. The second cohort will consist of newly recruited subjects (age 14-18) who are either normal (N = 150) or have PSUD (N = 150).
The aims of this project are to (1) Determine the impact of age of menarche (sa an indicator of pubertal timing) on drug use involvement in relation to family stress, history of victimization, and as affiliation with older peers, particularly on older boyfriend; and, (2) Demonstrate that females with PSUD are differentiable from normal controls with respect to susceptibility to reactive (impulsive) aggression following provocation and that this susceptibility is moderated by cognitive misattributions and magnitude of subjective (reinforcing) effects of drugs. To the best of our knowledge this is the only ongoing research specifically focussing on female adolescents ascertained according to a diagnosis of PSUD. However, there is very little known about adolescent PSUD even though they probably comprise the most severe segment of the drug using population and exact the greatest social and economic costs to society. The proposed research addresses several issues which are integral to understanding the origins, course and outcome of severe drug involvement (e.g. mating patterns, maturational factors influencing peer affiliation patterns, retaliatory aggression). This information provides the foundation for policy formulation which appropriates the necessary resources required for effective secondary prevention.
