We propose to analyze data from the Flint Adolescent Study (FAS; R01 DA007484-14, PI: Zimmerman), a longitudinal study following an at-risk sample of adolescents into young adulthood over a span of 19 years. We will examine the link between family environment in adolescence and young-adulthood alcohol misuse, family stress, and child temperament. In addition, this study will integrate census and police crime data to examine how contextual stressors commonly experienced by African Americans (e.g. neighborhood disadvantage, community violence, and perceived discrimination)1 may modulate these relationships. The study sample includes African-American youth at-risk for deleterious outcomes as a result of low school achievement status, typically low socio-economic status individuals coming from depressed, notoriously violent communities. Researchers have sought to describe consistent patterns of alcohol use in both adolescence and early adulthood. Yet, these developmental patterns of alcohol use may not be generalizable to African Americans who often report different alcohol use relative to their white counterparts. Furthermore, although researchers have examined the dynamic associations between parents' alcohol problems, parenting, and child temperament, few have examined how family processes interplay with the trajectory of alcohol use and perceived child temperament. Finally, more work is needed to determine whether and how contextual stress can exacerbate difficulties during the transition to adulthood caused by early risk factors of alcohol misuse. To address these gaps in the literature, we will determine if different patterns of alcohol use during the transition to adulthood predict the trajectories of alcohol use in adulthood (Aim 1). We will then examine a conceptual model of how alcohol use trajectories in responses to negative family environments in adolescence may be a precursor for later family stress, alcohol misuse and perceived child temperament in young adulthood (Aim 2). We will then determine if several dimensions of contextual stressors differentially affect the relationships between early negative family environment and young adult outcomes (Aim 3). We will use structural equation modeling and latent class growth curve modeling to test our hypotheses. Results from this secondary data analysis will help inform interventions that focus on family factors during adolescence for preventing alcohol misuse later in life. The findings may also shed the light on how contextual stress influences the relations of family stress, alcohol use and child development, especially among vulnerable populations.
This research will help researchers and practitioners understand how family environment in adolescence is associated with family experiences and alcohol use in adulthood. We will also consider whether contextual stressors commonly experienced by young adult African Americans compound problems resulting from early negative family contexts.
