HEALTH AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT PROJECT (HHDP)

Background

Drs. Pandina, Labouvie, White, Johnson and Bates are investigators on the HHDP, which began in 1979. The HHDP is a prospective, longitudinal study of the emergence and unfolding of alcohol and other drug use behaviors in interaction with the individual's physical, psychological and social development from adolescence into adulthood. This study has been funded by NIAAA, NIDA, NIJ, the Alcoholic Beverage Medical Research Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the MacManus Foundation. The design of the HHDP study involves three partially overlapping, longitudinal sequences each starting at a different age (12, 15, and 18) and spanning a combined age range from 12 to 31 at present.

Mission

• To conduct research on the development, etiology and consequences of addictive behaviors and other comorbid conditions over the life course.

• To provide training for undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral students in the conduct of research on health and human development.

• To disseminate findings to the research community and practitioners interested in addictive behaviors.

Research Focus

• explication of a taxonomy of developmental trajectories of alcohol and drug use

• identification of developmental antecedents of the initiation and maintenance of use

• identification of short and long term consequences of use

• identification of antecedents to the maturing out

• examination of the comorbidity of substance use with other problem behaviors

• development of measures of problem use (e.g., the Rutgers Alcohol Problem Index; RAPI ).

Grants

• Understanding racial differences in developmental trajectories of cigarette smoking, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 03/01/02-02/28/04.

• Development of drug abuse in girls. National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). 2/01/00-1/31/05.

The Pittsburgh Youth Study (PYS) and the Pittsburgh Girls Study (PGS)

Helene White is a co-investigator on the PYS and PGS (PI: Rolf Loeber). The PYS is a longitudinal study of a high-risk sample of about 1500 boys, first tested in the first, fourth and seventh grades and followed for 14 years. The PYS has been funded by OJJDP, NIMH, NIDA, NIMH, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Helene White is also a co-investigator on a NIDA and NIMH funded study, the PGS, which is collecting longitudinal data on more than 2000 girls and their caretakers first starting at age 5-8 and following them up annually. The original sample was weighted to oversample girls from high-risk neighborhoods.

HHDP | Cognitive Lab | Contacts