# Teen Mothers’ Prenatal Cannabis Use and Co-Use with Tobacco

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH · 2020 · $99,616

## Abstract

Sexual minority (SM) women are an understudied population and there is no research on prenatal substance
use in younger cisgender SM women. However, SM women (especially bisexual and mostly heterosexual
women) are 2-4 times more likely to experience a teenage pregnancy than heterosexual women. SM women
initiate cigarette, alcohol and marijuana use at much younger ages, and continue to use more of these
substances into young adulthood. Despite these striking disparities in rates of teen pregnancy and pre-
pregnancy substance use, there have been no studies of prenatal substance use in young SM women. The
goal of this study is to address that gap in the literature by collecting additional data from pregnant SM women
ages 13-21 from an existing cohort, the YoungMoms study. SM women from the YoungMoms study will be
recruited to complete an online survey (n=85) and qualitative interviews (n=20). The pregnant SM women will
be matched for age and race with pregnant heterosexual (non-SM) women from the YoungMoms study, to
compare their rates of substance use and other risk factors such as experiences of violence, discrimination,
stress, and depression. The aims of this study are twofold: (1) Identify the prevalence and types of tobacco,
alcohol, cannabis and other illicit drug use before and during pregnancy in young pregnant SM women and
compare them to rates in non-SM women; and (2) Compare the rates of risk factors for prenatal substance use
and other syndemic factors in young pregnant SM and non-SM women. Qualitative interviews will be used to
elucidate factors related to prenatal substance use that may be specific to young SM women. This is a logical
extension and well within the scope of the parent study, which was designed to examine patterns of perinatal
cannabis and tobacco use in younger pregnant women. This study is a cost-effective way to accelerate
research on SM women and provide much-needed data on prenatal substance use in this high-risk population.
The study represents an entirely new shift in focus on teen and young adult mothers with implications for both
research and clinical practice. Obstetric providers may not realize how many of their younger patients are SM,
nor the specific risk factors related to prenatal substance use in this vulnerable population.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10091690
- **Project number:** 3R01DA046401-02S1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH
- **Principal Investigator:** Natacha De Genna
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $99,616
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2019-05-01 → 2024-02-29

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10091690

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10091690, Teen Mothers’ Prenatal Cannabis Use and Co-Use with Tobacco (3R01DA046401-02S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10091690. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*