# Single Parent Families and Young Adolescents' Substance Use

> **NIH NIH R03** · UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN · 2020 · $72,321

## Abstract

Abstract
Because early adolescent substance use can be a symptom of current and future maladjustment, the stakes of
alcohol and marijuana use among young adolescents in the U.S. are high. As such, elucidating the etiology of
early use serves an important public health purpose. In this spirit, this R03 project will delve into an ecological
setting linked to substance use: family structures with only one biological parent. Past research documents that
adolescents who live with only one biological parent (especially a single father and somewhat regardless of the
presence of a stepparent) tend to have higher levels of alcohol and marijuana use than youth living with both
biological parents through stress-related, family-based, and peer-based mechanisms. Drawing on life course
theory, this project will innovatively expand on this foundational knowledge by focusing on especially young
and vulnerable adolescents and by exploring variability in the links among family structure (single mother and
single father vs. two biological parent and stepparent families), the focal mechanisms, and substance use
across multiple layers context. It will do so by applying advanced statistical techniques to several sources of
public data that have not yet been examined collectively. First, conceptualizing contextualization as historical
time, joinpoint regression will be applied to repeated cross-sectional data on U.S. 14 year olds from Monitoring
the Future. These analyses will identify non-linear increases in the associations between single parent families
and young adolescents' alcohol and marijuana use from the early 1990s through today. Second,
conceptualizing contextualization as developmental and family history, time-varying effects modeling will be
applied to panel data on U.S. 14 year olds from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979-Children and
Young Adults (NLSY-CYA). These analyses will identify increases in the focal associations as a function of the
recency of transitions into such structures and the number of other family transitions experienced since birth.
Third, conceptualizing contextualization as societal settings, structural equation modeling will be applied to
cohort data on 14 year olds from NLSY-CYA, Growing up in Australia, Growing up in Ireland, and the U.K.
Millennium Cohort. Using both a priori harmonization, fixed effects integrative data analysis, and missing data
estimation to address differences across datasets, these analyses will identify potential increases in the focal
associations in the U.S. compared to three other English-speaking countries with similar policy regimes but
different norms of substance use, family structure patterns, and public supports for families. Conducted by a
senior sociologist and junior psychologist with histories of productive federally funded research on families and
adolescent health along with consultants from each of the non-U.S. countries under study, this project will ask
and answer contextual q...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9864059
- **Project number:** 5R03DA046046-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN
- **Principal Investigator:** ROBERT LYLE CROSNOE
- **Activity code:** R03 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $72,321
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-02-15 → 2022-01-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9864059

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9864059, Single Parent Families and Young Adolescents' Substance Use (5R03DA046046-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9864059. Licensed CC0.

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