Drug Use in Latin American Youth: Longitudinal Study from Infancy to Adolescence

描述(申请人提供)：在美国的拉美裔青年中，药物使用的流行率高得不成比例，在拉丁美洲，药物使用正在增加。然而，对拉美裔人群中的物质使用情况的研究严重不足。相对较少的西班牙裔研究主要由横断面样本或非常短的纵向设计(例如，2-3年)组成。它们往往依赖于在校青年的样本，不包括可能影响以后使用药物的生物侮辱的信息。拟议的项目解决了其中许多限制。它建立在1200多名智利青少年及其家人的非同寻常的样本基础上，这些青少年和他们的家人从婴儿时期起就被纵向跟踪。该样本最初是与美国国立卫生研究院支持的一项关于预防婴儿期缺铁性贫血的行为和发育影响的研究一起登记的。在婴儿期以及5岁和10岁时，获得了关于生物、个人、家庭和环境因素的全面信息。在拟议的项目开始时，儿童将在11-15岁，这一年龄段开始使用物质，特别是酒精和烟草，在智利非常高。我们建议在青春期早期到晚期确定物质使用、滥用和依赖的发育途径。在拟议的为期五年的研究中，我们计划对所有青少年-母亲二人组进行两次全面评估，大约相隔两年。在生命历程方法的指导下，我们建议调查三个具体目标：目的1)纵向描述从婴儿期到青春期增加或减少青春期药物参与的个人、家庭和环境因素；目的2)确定在高危时期及以后使用药物的认知、行为和社会后果；以及目的3)确定婴儿期可能对多巴胺系统的侮辱(缺铁)对青春期药物使用和滥用的影响。拟议研究的结果有助于我们从两个重要方面了解物质使用和滥用的原因和预防：1)进一步确定拉美裔青年参与毒品的途径；2)在15年的时间里，在从生物到环境的多领域背景下研究物质使用的发展途径。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The prevalence of substance use is disproportionately high among Hispanic youth in the U.S., and substance use is increasing in Latin America. Yet substance use in Hispanic populations is vastly understudied. The relatively few studies with Hispanics consist mainly of cross-sectional samples or very short longitudinal designs (e.g., 2-3 years). They tend to rely on samples of school-attending youth and do not include information on biological insults that might impact later substance use. The proposed project addresses many of these limitations. It builds on an extraordinary sample of over 1,200 young Chilean adolescents and their families, who have been followed longitudinally since infancy. The sample was originally enrolled in conjunction with a NIH-supported study of the behavioral and developmental effects of preventing iron deficiency anemia in infancy. Comprehensive information on biological, individual, familial, and environmental factors was obtained in infancy and at 5 and 10 years. The children will be 11-15 years at the start of the proposed project, an age period when initiation of substance use, especially alcohol and tobacco, is exceptionally high in Chile. We propose to identify developmental pathways of substance use, abuse, and dependence in early to late adolescence. In the proposed five-year study we plan to conduct two comprehensive assessments of all adolescent-mother dyads, approximately two years apart. Guided by a life-course approach, we propose to investigate 3 Specific Aims: Aim 1) To longitudinally characterize individual, familial, and environmental factors from infancy through adolescence that increase or decrease drug involvement in adolescence; Aim 2) To identify cognitive, behavioral, and social consequences of substance use through an at-risk period and beyond; and Aim 3) To determine the effects of a probable insult to the dopamine system in infancy (iron deficiency) on substance use and abuse in adolescence. Findings from the proposed study can contribute to our understanding of the etiology and prevention of substance use and abuse in two important ways: 1) To further the identification of pathways of drug involvement among Hispanic youth; and 2) To study developmental pathways of substance use within a multiple domain context that ranges from the biological to the environmental over a 15-year period.