This application responds to PAR-95-024 which """"""""solicits exploratory/developmental research grant applications to support the secondary analysis of data relevant to the prevention of alcohol abuse and alcoholism"""""""". Alcohol abuse has been implicated as one of the negative consequences of childhood victimization (physical and sexual abuse and neglect). The data set proposed for use in this grant application overcomes many of the shortcomings of previous research and currently represents the most comprehensive, prospective, large scale, and longterm data base for addressing the consequences of early childhood victimization. The data set contains archival information from court records, official criminal history information from three levels of law enforcement at two time periods, and community level census tract information for a large sample of substantiated cases of early childhood physical and sexual abuse and neglect and matched controls (n=1,575) who were followed up and assessed. In-person follow-up interviews in young adulthood (n=1,144) obtained information on psychiatric, cognitive, intellectual, social, familial, and behavioral functioning of the respondents, as well as information on parental alcohol and drug use. Analyses will be directed toward substantive and methodological goals: (1) to test a number of hypotheses about the possible mechanisms linking childhood victimization to later alcohol problems in females; (2) to examine the co-occurrence of alcohol abuse and other psychiatric disorders in these individuals and to compare age of onset and symptom patterns among co-occurring psychiatric disorders; (3) to examine relationships among childhood victimization, alcohol abuse, and violence; (4) to examine the role of protective factors in moderating or buffering the development of alcohol abuse and alcoholism; and (5) to compare rates of alcohol abuse in individuals who retrospectively self-report childhood victimization with rates in persons with documented (official) reports of childhood victimization.
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