Adolescent brain cognitive development (ABCD) study: Overview of substance use assessment methods

Abstract

One of the objectives of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study (https://abcdstudy.org/) is to establish a national longitudinal cohort of 9 and 10 year olds that will be followed for 10 years in order to prospectively study the risk and protective factors influencing substance use and its consequences, examine the impact of substance use on neurocognitive, health and psychosocial outcomes, and to understand the relationship between substance use and psychopathology. This article provides an overview of the ABCD Study Substance Use Workgroup, provides the goals for the workgroup, rationale for the substance use battery, and includes details on the substance use module methods and measurement tools used during baseline, 6-month and 1-year follow-up assessment time-points. Prospective, longitudinal assessment of these substance use domains over a period of ten years in a nationwide sample of youth presents an unprecedented opportunity to further understand the timing and interactive relationships between substance use and neurocognitive, health, and psychopathology outcomes in youth living in the United States.

Keywords: Adolescent; Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study; Alcohol; Assessment; Cannabis; Child; Drug use; Inhalants; Longitudinal; Marijuana; Methods; Nicotine; Prescription drug use; Substance use.

Fig. 1

a) Picture of initial set-up for the ABCD on-line TLFB interview. Research assistants fill out the participant identification, session name, number of months measured, session run, and session date. Substances used by the youth (in this case, alcohol, tobacco cigarettes, and smoked cannabis “MJ”) are selected. Remembered events, such as “parents out of town” and “birthday party”, are populated onto calendar to aid recall (also see Fig. 1c). b) Individual Substance Use Events: After the TLFB is set up (Fig. 1a), the research assistant fills out each substance-use event into the on-line TLFB interview by noting the substance used, standard units, and dates of use (repeated dates are allowable). This example demonstrates a recurring event of daily tobacco cigarette use, in the standard unit of two cigarettes per day. c) This picture shows a completed month in the on-line ABCD TLFB interview. Example shows daily tobacco cigarette use (two cigarettes a day; see Fig. 1b), weekend alcohol use (reported in standard alcohol drinks), and intermittent smoked cannabis use (“smoked MJ”, reported in grams). Note: the fake drug name is blacked-out to protect validity of the instrument.