CONSEQUENCES OF SUBSTANCE USE ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF IMPULSE CONTROL

This competing renewal of our longitudinal project proposes to elucidate mechanisms driving the initiationand progression of substance use is consistent with NIDA and NIMH's recently outlined strategic plans (NIDA,2016; NIH CRAN, 2015; NIMH, 2015) prioritizing research on the period between adolescence and youngadulthood. Defining features of typical adolescent development are increases in sensation seeking followed bymore gradual increases in impulse control (described by the Dual Systems model). The discrepancy betweendeveloping sensation seeking and impulse control are theorized to result in risk-taking behaviors likesubstance use. In at-risk youth, these developmental processes may be further discrepant, which may be onemechanism for increased rates and severity of substance use involvement. The renewal project has beendocumenting the relationship of sensation seeking and impulse control since before substance use onset (10to 12 years old at study entry), and this renewal will to continue to assess these processes and outcomes intoyoung adulthood. More specifically, we will continue longitudinal assessments (every 6 months) of our at-risk(due to family history of substance use disorder) and control youth to monitor changes in substance use,impulse control, environmental, sensation seeking, risk and resiliency factors. Outcomes will be interpretedfrom the perspective of the Dual Systems model, and importantly, this work will extend this model by testing:(1) whether impulse control and sensation seeking develop independently from one another; (2) whetherimpulse control and sensation seeking development has additive or interactive effects on substance useinvolvement; (3) how the onset and escalation of substance use affects subsequent development of impulsecontrol and sensation seeking; (4) how processes identified in the Dual Systems model develop amongadolescents and young adults with family history risk; and (5) how social and environmental factors influencerisk and resiliency for substance use and are interpreted in the context of the Dual Systems model.Interpreting these findings within the context of the Dual Systems model will help to refine and extend the keypremises of this model, as well as reveal more detail about developmental mechanisms of substance useinvolvement.