# Neurobehavioral and Psychosocial Predictors of Health Risk Behaviors in Adolescence and Young Adulthood

> **NIH NIH R01** · VIRGINIA POLYTECHNIC INST AND ST UNIV · 2024 · $791,685

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Young adulthood is a developmental period during which health risk behaviors (HRBs) (e.g., substance use)
peak, but the factors that lead to sustained addiction are not well understood. Current neurobiological models of
risk taking focus on a developmental imbalance between the brain’s control and reward systems to explain the
typical heightened risk taking seen in adolescence. We have shown that the two systems involved in value-
based decision making—i.e., the valuation system (risk and reward processing) and the control system (cognitive
control)—predict HRBs in adolescence. However, patterns of brain development during adolescence that predict
continuity vs. discontinuity in HRBs in young adulthood are unknown. To fill these significant gaps, we will
conduct longitudinal analyses to prospectively measure developmental trajectories of neurobehavioral
mechanisms underlying HRBs throughout adolescence and young adulthood, and to characterize psychosocial
risk and resilience factors that influence these developmental trajectories. We propose that poverty, abuse, and
neglect are risk factors that are linked to HRBs through their impact on neurobehavioral mechanisms underlying
HRBs, and that social integration is a resilience factor that deters HRB progression during young adulthood. We
address the following aims: (1) we will assess longitudinal and bidirectional associations between valuation and
control systems and HRBs from adolescence to young adulthood; (2) we will examine whether poverty, abuse,
and neglect (experienced in childhood and adolescence) are associated with young adult HRBs through altered
developmental trajectories of valuation and control systems in adolescence (i.e., neurocognitive vulnerability);
and (3) we will examine whether social integration mediates the link between valuation and control decision-
making systems and HRBs, and moderates the effects of psychosocial stress on HRBs. This application
addresses these aims by extending a prospective longitudinal study to follow up 167 adolescents through young
adulthood (23-27 yrs) who were previously assessed during adolescence (13-22 yrs). Our sample is from
underserved, understudied communities with elevated substance use rates, and thus is well-poised to provide
critical insights about HRBs in at-risk populations. Our intensive longitudinal multiple-level data (11 prospective
measurement occasions over 15 years) will provide an unprecedented opportunity to understand both individual
differences and within-person developmental changes in neurobehavioral mechanisms underlying HRBs from
adolescence to young adulthood. The proposed study will (i) advance developmental theory regarding dynamic
processes of brain-HRB associations; (ii) generate new knowledge regarding how psychosocial risk factors alter
developmental trajectories of neural mechanisms underlying HRBs; and (iii) uncover neurocognitive and social
resilience factors that can be targeted for strategic ...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10944240
- **Project number:** 1R01DA061024-01
- **Recipient organization:** VIRGINIA POLYTECHNIC INST AND ST UNIV
- **Principal Investigator:** Brooks Casas
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $791,685
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-08-15 → 2029-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10944240

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10944240, Neurobehavioral and Psychosocial Predictors of Health Risk Behaviors in Adolescence and Young Adulthood (1R01DA061024-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-06-12 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10944240. Licensed CC0.

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