This application proposes a five-wave study. with a longitudinal sample of 400 children and parents from African-American, Hispanic, and Caucasian families. Child participants will be drawn from a general school population on the basis of teacher ratings of temperament; participants will be oversampled from the highest 30 percent on the temperament-risk distribution and randomly drawn from the other 70 percent of the distribution. Participating families will initially be interviewed at child's age 9 years, and followed with repeated assessments through age 13 years (total of 5 assessments). The study will test a temperament model of early vulnerability and protection for substance use. Major propositions are that early onset is attributable to a combination of temperament and parental factors, and (within individuals) to the balance of activation and inhibition systems. The research will include constructs from epigenetic theory, social perception theory, and attitudinal theory. Basic data will be collected through interviews in homes, conducted with the child and a primary caregiver; data will also be obtained from a secondary caregiver, through ratings by school teachers, and from school records. Predictor variables include temperament dimensions, measures of behavioral activation and inhibition systems, and self-control constructs. Other measures include parental variables (support, self-control, marital relationship, religiosity, substance use, symptomatology), social integration, attachment, academic involvement, norms and attitudes about substance use, prototype perceptions and peer group characteristics, alternative reinforcers, and negative life events. Criterion variables will include tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana use, mental health indices, and measures of antisocial behavior. Data analysis will focus on structural modeling analysis and latent growth modeling to test predicted relationships between variables and determine variables that predict initial intercepts and growth over time in substance use. Latent transition analyses will be used to characterize sequences of onset. The results will have implications for the understanding of early onset of substance use and the design of prevention programs for children.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01DA012623-05
Application #
6885345
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZRG1-RPHB-1 (01))
Program Officer
Price, Leshawndra N
Project Start
2001-04-01
Project End
2009-03-31
Budget Start
2006-04-01
Budget End
2009-03-31
Support Year
5
Fiscal Year
2006
Total Cost
$823,430
Indirect Cost
Name
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Department
Public Health & Prev Medicine
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
110521739
City
Bronx
State
NY
Country
United States
Zip Code
10461
Wills, Thomas A; Gibbons, Frederick X; Sargent, James D et al. (2010) Good self-control moderates the effect of mass media on adolescent tobacco and alcohol use: tests with studies of children and adolescents. Health Psychol 29:539-49
Wills, Thomas A; Sargent, James D; Gibbons, Frederick X et al. (2009) Movie exposure to alcohol cues and adolescent alcohol problems: a longitudinal analysis in a national sample. Psychol Addict Behav 23:23-35
Wills, Thomas A; Ainette, Michael G; Stoolmiller, Mike et al. (2008) Good self-control as a buffering agent for adolescent substance use: an investigation in early adolescence with time-varying covariates. Psychol Addict Behav 22:459-71
Wills, Thomas A; Sargent, James D; Stoolmiller, Mike et al. (2008) Movie smoking exposure and smoking onset: a longitudinal study of mediation processes in a representative sample of U.S. adolescents. Psychol Addict Behav 22:269-77
Piko, Bettina F; Wills, Thomas A; Walker, Carmella (2007) Motives for smoking and drinking: country and gender differences in samples of Hungarian and US high school students. Addict Behav 32:2087-98
Wills, Thomas A; Ainette, Michael G; Mendoza, Don et al. (2007) Self-control, symptomatology, and substance use precursors: test of a theoretical model in a community sample of 9-year-old children. Psychol Addict Behav 21:205-15
Walker, Carmella; Ainette, Michael G; Wills, Thomas A et al. (2007) Religiosity and substance use: test of an indirect-effect model in early and middle adolescence. Psychol Addict Behav 21:84-96
Wills, Thomas A; Murry, Velma McBride; Brody, Gene H et al. (2007) Ethnic pride and self-control related to protective and risk factors: test of the theoretical model for the strong African American families program. Health Psychol 26:50-9
Sargent, James D; Stoolmiller, Mike; Worth, Keilah A et al. (2007) Exposure to smoking depictions in movies: its association with established adolescent smoking. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 161:849-56
Wills, Thomas A; Walker, Carmella; Mendoza, Don et al. (2006) Behavioral and emotional self-control: relations to substance use in samples of middle and high school students. Psychol Addict Behav 20:265-78

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