This study proposes to examine the consequences of drug use on psychosocial functioning in a cohort of African-American adults drawn from the National Collaborative Perinatal Project. A wide range of prospective and retrospective information has been collected on this cohort at four developmental periods spanning from infancy to early childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood at ages 24 and 26.5. The study now seeks to extend the data collection to age 37 and to gather information with respect to eight domains of psychosocial relevant to the transition to adulthood: l. Family formation and family relationships; 2. Educational and livelihood pursuits (employment, occupation and earnings); 3. Conventional behavior and social integration; 4. Antisocial behavior and relations with deviant peers; 5. Sexual and AIDS risk behavior; 6. Illegal criminal and violent behavior; 7. Physical health and morbidity; and 8. mental health including attention deficity-hyperactivity (ADHD). A main emphasis of this study is to examine the potential mediating mechanism through which early and chronic drug use influence behavior and adjustment in the eight specified domains. The proposed followup in adulthood is timed to coincide when career and employment factors weigh heavily on many African-Americans, and will permit examination and identification of key risk mechanisms that may foster disenfranchisement from social institutions and that may be developmentally linked with the etiology of criminal and violent behaviors. Moreover, there will be a special emphasis on the role of substance use/abuse in regard to subsequent violent behavior, including determination of the specific types of drugs, the use of which predispose to or precipitate violent behavior (e.g. cocaine/crack vs. alcohol), and which types of drugs are implicated in which types of violent behavior (physical assault vs. weapons offenses). Using appropriate multivariate comparative analytic strategies 2 theoretical models will be contrasted: developmental hiatus (Baumrind & Moselle 19855 and pseudomaturity (Newcomb & Bentler 1988) for their potential in explaining the long-term effects of drug use on psychosocial functioning.
| Friedman, Alfred S; Terras, Arlene; Zhu, Weizhong et al. (2004) Depression, negative self-image, and suicidal attempts as effects of substance use and substance dependence. J Addict Dis 23:55-71 |
