# An Examination of the Joint Contributions of Socioeconomic Disadvantage, Genetics, and COVID-19 on the Development of Delay Discounting and Substance Use Across Adolescence

> **NIH NIH R01** · RUTGERS BIOMEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES · 2024 · $346,893

## Abstract

Project Summary
Rapid escalations in substance use during adolescence confer risk for the development of substance and
alcohol use disorders across the lifespan. Thus, identifying malleable risk factors and prevention targets that
emerge before substance use onset is an important public health goal. Research demonstrates that delay
discounting (DD), the tendency to perceive diminishing value in a reward as a function of the length of delay in
its receipt, is an important and modifiable risk factor for substance misuse. However, the early developmental
precursors of DD, including environmental adversity and genetic risk factors that are thought to be associated
with increases in DD across adolescence are not well understood. The extant literature examining these
vulnerabilities is limited by its reliance on poorly characterized markers of environmental adversity, lack of
consideration of developmental effects, and the genetic contributions to the development of DD. The current
application proposes to address these limitations utilizing data from the Adolescent Brian Cognitive
Development (ABCD) Study, a national sample of youth (n = 11,875) with planned longitudinal assessments
from age 9 to 17, spanning critical developmental periods for changes in DD and substance use. The
proposed project will leverage rich and varied indicators of adverse childhood events and community
environments (using the “Pair of ACEs” framework) and genetic data to create polygenic risk scores for DD
(informed by findings from the largest available genome-wide association study of DD performed by project
consultants). The project timeline will take advantage of both currently available and planned releases of data
to test study aims and accelerate dissemination of findings from this landmark study. Specific aims of the
study include: (Aim 1) to examine the structure of ACEs and its relation to early levels of DD; (Aim 2) to
characterize the impact of ACEs on measured trajectories of DD over time; and (Aim 3) to investigate the
joint associations between genetic and ACEs risk factors on changes in DD across adolescence. We also
propose to explore whether developmental trajectories of DD mediate the relation between genetic and ACEs
factors and subsequent changes in substance use frequency and severity. The research team brings together
expertise in child development, delay discounting, genetics, and environmental indicators of risk, allowing for
the most comprehensive study of the independent and joint contextual and genetic contributions to DD
development. Findings from this project will provide mechanistic insights into the development of DD, in
addition to specific and actionable advancements at the environmental level that may inform targeting of
prevention approaches for reducing substance use among at-risk youth.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10896989
- **Project number:** 5R01DA057552-04
- **Recipient organization:** RUTGERS BIOMEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES
- **Principal Investigator:** JULIA W FELTON
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $346,893
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2022-09-01 → 2027-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10896989

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10896989, An Examination of the Joint Contributions of Socioeconomic Disadvantage, Genetics, and COVID-19 on the Development of Delay Discounting and Substance Use Across Adolescence (5R01DA057552-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10896989. Licensed CC0.

---

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