Samuel Granick

The relationships of substance abuse to illegal and violent behavior, in a community sample of young adult African American men and women (gender differences)

In a longitudinal study of an African American young adult community sample (N = 380), prospective data on lifetime substance use/abuse from childhood up to age 24 were used as control variables in analyses to predict illegal and violent behavior during the ensuing 2 1/2-year period. Frequent earlier use of drugs predicted subsequent violent behavior for both men and women. Frequency of earlier use of alcohol predicted subsequent violent behavior for men but not for women. A weaker relationship was found between degree of psychopathology and degree of engaging in either illegal or violent behavior than between degree of psychopathology and degree of substance use/abuse. Comorbidity (the combination of earlier use/abuse of drugs with earlier psychopathology) was a stronger predictor, for women than for men, of later illegal and violent behavior.

Gender Differences in Early Life Risk Factors for Substance Use/Abuse: A Study of an African-American Sample

Gender differences in risk and protective factors for substance use/abuse in early adulthood were studied. Comprehensive systematic data on African-American males (N = 318) and females (N = 322), from birth to 7 years of age, were available from the National Collaborative Perinatal Study. These subjects were retrieved for assessment at average age 24. There are more differences between males and females than there are similarities in regard to the early childhood variables that predict substance use in early adulthood. However, high activity and intensity of response during infancy (measured at 8 months of age) was found to predict later substance use for both males and females. This type of behavior is considered by use to be a trait of temperament and to suggest the possibility of a genetic predisposition. More risk factors were found for female than for males. The risk factors for females were primarily of two types: 1) Related to experiences with mother and with the family environment; and 2) Poor levels of intellectual functioning and academic performance, and abnormal mental status.