Early childhood risk and protective factors for substance use during early adolescence: Gender differences

Substance use histories up to age 16 were obtained on 318 African-American males and 322 African-American females on whom systematic prospective data was available from the National Collaborative Perinatal Study. A number of childhood risk factors (family variables, subject's behavior) were found to predict to degree of substance use, or to frequency of alcohol use to intoxication. Not a single one of these risk factors applied to both genders. A clearer picture of the risk factors for early involvement in drug use appeared within the females, than for the male sample, including childhood psychopathology, relatively lower intellectual level, and relatively poorer academic performance.