# Teaching Youth & Families Self-Regulation Skills to Disrupt the Impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences: Preventing Substance Use in Adversity-Impacted Youth

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-IRVINE · 2024 · $711,480

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) constitute a serious public health issue, impacting almost half of
adolescents and over 60% of adults in the United States. High ACEs exposure (i.e., four or more ACEs) may
result in self-dysregulation (i.e., challenges managing cognitions, emotions, and behaviors) and lead to early
initiation of alcohol and substance use (e.g., self-medication hypothesis) and other biopsychosocial responses,
such as cardiometabolic risks (e.g., lowered heart rate variability [HRV], increased weight and blood pressure,
and sleep disturbance), and emotional and/or cognitive dysregulation. Health inequities resulting from self-
dysregulation are highest among minoritized and impoverished populations, who experience disproportionately
higher exposure to ACEs, and early adolescence is a time in which experimentation with alcohol and drugs
occurs. Although not all adolescents who experiment with drugs are later diagnosed with a substance use
disorder, those who engage early (i.e., before the age of 14) and regularly are at greater risk. Youth with four or
more ACEs may experience a unique type of adversity characterized by chronic, unpredictable stress shaping
their perception of and responses to stress. However certain strategies, called Shift and Persist, can mitigate
these exposures where one shifts their attention from adverse experiences to future-directed behaviors (e.g.,
healthy habit adoption, stress management), resulting in improved self-regulation and lower cardiometabolic
risks. GRIT is a community health worker (CHW)-delivered psychoeducational health coaching intervention that
promotes coping with high exposure to ACEs to regulate the stress response using self-regulation techniques
and the development of healthy habits recommended by the California Surgeon General (e.g., supportive
relationships, quality sleep, physical activity). We propose conducting a 2-arm Randomized Controlled Trial
(RCT) (GRIT vs an active control [i.e., digital citizenship]) with 210 adolescent-caregiver dyads to determine
GRIT’s impact on preventing the early initiation of regular use of alcohol and cannabis among adversity-impacted
adolescents ages 11-14 who do not regularly use alcohol or cannabis at baseline. The specific aims will: Aim
1. Examine the effect of GRIT on preventing the early initiation of regular alcohol and cannabis use over time.
H1: Adolescents enrolled in GRIT will have lower rates of regular alcohol and/or cannabis use at post-
intervention, 6-, and 12-month follow-ups compared to adolescents in the active control group. Aim 2. Examine
the role of youth and caregiver self-regulation in mediating the effect of GRIT on adolescent rates of alcohol and
cannabis use. H2: Youth and caregiver self-regulation will mediate youth initiation of regular alcohol and
cannabis use. This community-based study seeks to establish efficacy for a brief, accessible secondary
prevention program. Once efficacy is esta...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10923727
- **Project number:** 1R01DA060784-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-IRVINE
- **Principal Investigator:** Dawn Bounds
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $711,480
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-07-01 → 2029-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10923727

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10923727, Teaching Youth & Families Self-Regulation Skills to Disrupt the Impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences: Preventing Substance Use in Adversity-Impacted Youth (1R01DA060784-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10923727. Licensed CC0.

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