From Child Maltreatment to Adolescent Substance Abuse: Risk and Protective Factors

Project Summary:
Both child maltreatment and adolescent substance abuse are highly significant public health problems in the U.S. today. This research will provide important new knowledge about the risk and resilience mechanisms underlying the relationship between child maltreatment and adolescent substance abuse in order to inform effective strength-based intervention and prevention efforts that target those most at risk of serious maladaptation.

Project Description:
Child abuse and neglect are huge social problems affecting millions of infants, children, and adolescents in America. Several decades of research indicate that experiencing abuse or neglect is associated with substance abuse and a variety of other problems, including anxiety and depression; aggression and delinquency; cognitive delays and school achievement problems; problems with interpersonal relationships; and health problems. We know little about the role of maltreatment in increasing the risk for substance use, and in particular have much to learn about the mechanisms that may be responsible for this association. What is proposed is the first prospective, longitudinal study to examine the come of this study is high-risk sexual behavior, which is commonly associated with substance abuse. Also unique to this study will be analyses that examine trajectories of psychosocial functioning from early adolescence, during the pubertal transition, to mid/late adolescence in order to examine different patterns of resilience and maladaptation. This proposed study is a follow-up of maltreated and comparison adolescents at ages 16-18, first assessed at approximately 11 years of age. The sample of children has been measured on 3 occasions at 1 to 1.5 year intervals in a cross sequential research design. A battery of measures on each occasion targets correlates and predictors of substance abuse and includes indicators of substance use; delinquency; competence in social and peer relationships; mental health and behavior problems (depression, anxiety, PTSD, aggression); psychobiological indictors of stress reactivity (salivary cortisol); indicators of cognitive abilities and school performance; and pubertal development. The assessments to be obtained at follow-up will focus on stress reactivity, measures of the use and abuse of drugs and alcohol and of beliefs and attitudes pertaining to this use and abuse, and measures of risky sexual behavior.

Project Investigator(s):
Penelope Trickett

Research Period: 08/01/09 - 07/31/10

Funding Source: National Institute of Drug Abuse

Total Award Amount: $ 1,451,567