College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Iowa State University

Phase two

New grant will enable psychology professors Rick Gibbons and Meg Gerrard to continue their research on African American children.
To get the real picture of a recent grant awarded to Rick Gibbons and Meg Gerrard, professors of psychology, you have to look to the past.

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) recently awarded Gibbons and Gerrard a five-year, $3 million grant to study the social psychological and familial influences on the health behavior of African American children.

This latest grant is a continuation of a $1.9 million grant the pair received from NIMH more than five years ago to begin the study.

Gibbons and Gerrard are part of a three-prong study of African American children and their families currently being undertaken by Iowa State psychology and sociology professors. They are working with Fred Lorenz, professor of sociology and statistics on their part of the study.

Other studies are being conducted with the same sample base by Carolyn Cutrona and Dan Russell, professors of psychology; Ron Simons, professor of sociology; and Rand Conger, former professor of sociology. The three teams have received a total of $16 million from NIMH for the studies.

Interviews have been conducted with African-American families in Iowa and Georgia, split almost equally between the two states. The initial interviews began when each of the families had a child that was approximately 10 1/2 years of age.

Specifically, Gibbons and Gerrard's study is looking at substance abuse among African American children including smoking, alcohol, and drug use, as well as early and/or risky sexual behavior.

"We're hoping to collect information on the family environments, the children's peers, and neighborhoods," Gibbons said. "Then hopefully we'll be able to predict early substance use and abuse."

The initial study began back in November 1995 and ended in July of this year. The African American children have already been interviewed at ages 10 1/2 and 12 1/2. Interviews have also been conducted with the children’s primary care giver and in some cases, secondary care givers and older siblings.

The new grant will allow the same sample to again be interviewed - this time at ages 14 1/2 and 16 1/2.

The two Iowa State psychology professors were attracted to the subject for a variety of reasons, not least of which is the fact that almost all previous studies of young children's substance abuse were done with a Caucasian samples.

"Our initial goal was to have both African American and white families in the sample," Gerrard said. "But there has been a lot of research done on substance abuse with white families, so we decided to focus on African American families."

While it is too early to tell yet about the results of the study, Gibbons did say that there is evidence of risk or a propensity for risk in at least 20-25% of the African American children.

"Our study indicates that by the age of 12 1/2 at least 20 and maybe 25 percent of African American children have already sampled one, if not more, of these substances," he said. "Those figures are lower than what you typically find with White children this age, but still, these adolescents are at heightened risk for much heavier substance abuse later on in their lives."

While many factors are in evidence (neighborhood, economics, caregivers) for causes of substance abuse, racial prejudice seems to be at the top of the list for African American children.

"Quite possibly the strongest prediction of substance abuse is the amount of racial prejudice experienced as a child," Gibbons said. "Even if we control statistically for these other risk factors."

The next stage of the study will take another five years. The two hope that it won't end there.

"This was a project that from the outset would have been a bust if we hadn't gotten this second level of funding," Gibbons said. "Hopefully we'll get a third grant for five more years that will take these kids into early adulthood and we'll be able to see how families change over time."

"A big part of what we are interested in is what are the families doing that is right to help them overcome the obstacles that they face," Gerrard said.