How racism shapes teens' substance use, mental health, and contact with the legal system into young adulthood
Official title: The Impact of Racism on Trajectories of Substance Use, Mental Health and Legal System Contact from Adolescence to Young Adulthood
Funded at University of California, San Francisco · NIH-11381703 · Data updated 2026-11-12
Researchers will re-contact teens who had juvenile legal involvement and their caregivers to track how experiences of racism relate to substance use, mental health, and later legal contact.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | University of California, San Francisco NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (San Francisco, United States) |
| Project start | May 15, 2022 |
| Project end | February 28, 2027 |
| Funding year | 2026 |
| Award (this year) | $715,271 |
| NIH project number | 5R01DA056265-05 |
| Project ID | NIH-11381703 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Ideal participants are adolescents and young adults who had first contact with the juvenile legal system as teens and their involved caregivers, especially ethnoracially minoritized families previously enrolled in Project EPICC.
✕Less likely to help
People without prior juvenile legal system involvement or those not part of the original Project EPICC cohort are not the focus and are unlikely to be directly included or benefit immediately from participation.
What this research studies
This project follows up with 300 youth-caregiver pairs from Project EPICC and builds on existing longitudinal data from 401 youth to extend tracking into young adulthood. Participants will complete one annual follow-up assessment and life-course interviews about experiences of racism, substance use, mental health, and interactions with the legal system. New data will be linked to earlier measures of individual, family, and community risk and protective factors to map developmental trajectories. Analyses focus on structural, cultural, and individual racism and how these forces contribute to health and legal inequities for ethnoracially minoritized youth.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, findings could inform policies and programs to reduce racial disparities and improve supports for justice-involved youth and their families.
How similar studies have gone: Previous longitudinal work links discrimination to worse mental health and substance use, but extended follow-up of justice-involved, ethnoracial minoritized youth is relatively novel.
Where this research is happening
-
University of California, San Francisco
San Francisco, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Tolou-Shams, Marina — University of California, San Francisco
- Study coordinator: Tolou-Shams, Marina
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About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.