IMPACT OF LIFE EVENTS ON PATTERNS OF DRUG US IN AN URBAN AFRICAN AMERICAN COHORT

描述(由申请者提供)：一个关键但研究不足的领域是为什么人们停止使用毒品，特别是非裔美国成年人。这个问题是拟议研究的主要焦点。与白人相比，非裔美国人与青少年使用的药物相同或更少，但随着他们成年，他们比白人更有可能开始使用药物，不太可能停止使用，更有可能发展为使用障碍。此外，吸毒严重影响健康，成年吸毒问题在老年非裔美国人中比白人更明显，例如与毒品有关的死亡率和发病率更高。我们使用超过35年的数据来解决这个重要的公共卫生问题，该数据来自一项对城市非裔美国人社区队列的全面发展流行病学研究，该研究首先在6岁(N=1242)，然后是青春期，以及32岁和42岁。芝加哥市中心的这一队列代表了1960年出生的队列，被认为是青少年吸毒率最高的人群。来自母亲、教师和官方学校、犯罪和死亡记录的信息与来自队列成员的数据相结合，以建立一项研究，提供宝贵的机会来检查生活事件对生命过程中物质使用模式的影响。具体目的是：1)研究个人生活事件对长期药物使用模式的影响；2)确定生活事件影响长期药物使用模式的条件；3)确定哪些个人水平或背景因素缓和了生活事件对长期药物使用模式的影响。拟议的项目借鉴了犯罪学文献中的社会控制年龄分级理论，并将其应用于物质使用，扩大了我们对社会关系和抵制越轨之间关系的理解(Sampson&Laub，1993；Laub&Sampson，2003)。在这方面，除了婚姻、工作和服兵役之外，很少有人研究积极的生活事件，也很少或根本没有注意到消极的生活事件。因此，我们试图研究更广泛的生活事件，无论是积极的还是消极的，都可以改变物质使用，并调查生活事件影响物质使用模式的条件。这项工作将扩大我们对个人生活事件所产生的社会关系作为物质使用的潜在转折点的作用的理解。然而，并不是每个经历过生活事件的人都会改变他们的物质使用轨迹。先前的研究已经发现，生活事件的质量很重要。在这个项目中，我们调查了生活事件影响物质使用停药的其他条件，如生活事件的数量和组合，以及生活事件的时间和顺序。我们还研究了稳定的个体差异(例如，自我控制)和成人背景影响(例如，抑郁的历史)的调节作用。拟议的项目使用纵向方法(例如，分层线性建模)，并采用以人为本的方法，将个人作为一个整体来考虑，以更好地了解物质使用的稳定性和变化。研究结果将通过确定成年期促进戒除药物使用的关键影响来为干预发展提供信息。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): A critical but understudied area of research is why people stop using drugs, especially African American adults. This question is the primary focus of the proposed study. African Americans have the same or less substance use as adolescents compared to Whites, but as they age into adulthood they are more likely than Whites to initiate drug use, less likely to desist use, and more likely to develop use disorders. Moreover, drug use significantly impacts health, with adult drug use problems being more evident in older African Americans than in Whites, such as higher drug-related mortality and morbidity. We address this important public health issue using data spanning more than 35 years from a comprehensive developmental epidemiological study of a community cohort of urban African Americans first studied at age 6 (N=1242), then in adolescence, and at ages 32 and 42. This inner city Chicago cohort represents a 1960 birth cohort, considered to have the highest rates of adolescent drug use. Information from mothers, teachers, and official school, criminal, and death records are integrated with data from cohort members to build a study that provides an invaluable opportunity to examine the impact of life events on patterns of substance use over the life course. The specific aims are to: 1) examine the impact of individual life events on long-term patterns of drug use; 2) identify conditions under which life events impact long-term drug use patterns, and 3) determine what individual-level or contextual factors moderate the impact of life events on long-term patterns of drug use. The proposed project draws on the age-graded theory of social control from criminological literature and applies it to substance use, extending our understanding of the relationship between social ties and desistance from deviance (Sampson & Laub, 1993; Laub & Sampson, 2003). Few positive life events beyond marriage, work, and military service have been studied in this regard, and there has been little to no attention paid t negative life events. Thus, we seek to study a wider array of life events, both positive and negative, that can alter substance use and investigate conditions under which life events impact substance use patterns. This work will extend our understanding of the role of social ties stemming from individual life events as potential turning points in substance use. Yet, not everyone who experiences a life event will alter their substance use trajectory. Prior research has found the quality of life events to matter. In this project, we investigate additional conditios under which life events impact substance use desistance such as the quantity and combinations of life events, and timing and ordering of life events. We also investigate moderating effects from stable individual differences (e.g., self-control) and adult contextual influences (e.g., histry of depression). The proposed project uses longitudinal methodologies (e.g., hierarchical linear modeling) and adopts a person-oriented approach, considering the individual as a whole to better understand stability and change in substance use. Findings will inform intervention development by identifying pivotal influences in adulthood that facilitate desistance from substance use.