Characteristics of Adolescents with and without a Family History of Substance Use Disorder from a Minority Cohort

Abstract

Family history (FH+) of substance use disorder (SUD) is an established risk factor for offspring SUD. The extent to which offspring psychological traits or the family environment, each of which may be relevant to familial transmission of SUD risk, vary by FH+ in socioeconomically disadvantaged populations is less clear. We compared the family/social environmental and psychological characteristics of 73 FH+ and 69 FH- youth ages 12–16, from a study of parental criminal justice system involvement in a primarily low-income, minority urban population. A latent profile analysis (LPA) empirically identified groups of subjects with similar psychological characteristics, which were then compared by FH+. FH+ youths were found to have greater mean household size, greater parental psychological aggression, and a higher mean number of adverse childhood experiences, even without considering parental SUD. FH+ individuals had lower report card grades according to parental report and were more likely to have a history of externalizing disorders than FH- individuals. However, FH+ was not significantly associated with many psychological characteristics or with the class membership from the LPA. In conclusion, among a population of low-income, minority urban youth, FH+ was associated with differences in the family environment and only subtle differences in individual psychological characteristics.