FUTURES Study

About Us

FUTURES stands for "Following Urban Teens: Unique and Resilient at Every Step". The FUTURES Project is a longitudinal study funded by National Institutes of Drug Abuse (NIDA). Data collection is complete and we are currently analyzing data to examine the effects of prenatal substance exposure and social risk factors on the neurocognitive and social development of teenagers in from urban, low-income environments.

The FUTURES Project began as the Mother-Infant Study at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. We followed 296 infants born at the University of Maryland Hospital. Families participated in a randomized controlled home intervention during the child's first two years of life. We met with children and caregivers twice a year until the children were 10 years-old. Data were collected at each visit on children's cognitive, behavioral, social, and psychological development. These data provide a rich source of information about how children who encounter a variety of risk and protective factors develop over time.

In the current phase of the study, we are studying neurocognitive, psychological, and behavioral outcomes. Now that the original participants are adolescents, we are assessing the effects of early experiences such as substance exposure, environmental adversity, parental sensitivity, placement stability, and factors associated with resilience on adolescent development. We are also collaborating with a group at NIDA (Bayview campus) to study participant's structural and functional brain development. We hope to learn more about adolescent brain development in the context of early prenatal and social risk.

Measures

We will measure:

Stress Response (Cortisol levels from saliva samples)
Drug Use (Hair and Urine samples)
Self-perception and family support
Corresponding primary caregiver data
Neuropsychological and cognitive development

Principal Investigator

‌‌MAUREEN BLACK, PhD
John A. Scholl Professor of Pediatrics
UMB School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics
mblack@som.umaryland.edu

Team Members

Co-investigators

PRASANNA NAIR, MD
UMB School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics
pnair@umaryland.edu

JAMES KOENIG, PhD
Professor of Phychiatry
UMB School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry
jkoenig@mprc.umaryland.org

JULIE SCHWEITZER, MD
UMB School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry
jschweit@umaryland.edu

ANTOLIN LLORENTE, PhD
UMB School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics
allorente@mwph.org

BETTY JO SALMERON, MD
Staff Clinician, NIDA-IRP
National Institute on Drug Abuse, NIH
bsalmeron@intra.nida.nih.gov

MONIQUE ERNST, MD, PhD
National Institute of Mental Health, NIH
ernstm@mail.nih.gov

MARILYN HUESTIS, PhD
Chief, Chemistry and Drug Metabolism Section
National Institute on Drug Abuse, NIH
mheustis@intra.nida.nih.gov

LARRY MAGDER, PhD, MPH
Associate Professor and Head of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics
UMB School of Medicine
lmagder@epi.umaryland.edu

ERIN HAGER, PhD
Assistant Professor
UMB School of Medicine
ehager@peds.umaryland.edu

Coordinators and Research Staff at UMB School of Medicine

Stacy Howes, PhD

Postdoctoral Fellow and Project Coordinator
showes@peds.umaryland.edu

Shannon Fitzmaurice, BA
sfitzma@peds.umaryland.edu

Publications

Representative manuscripts are listed below. For a complete list of publications from the Mother-Infant Study and FUTURES project, please contact the FUTURES Project coordinator, Stacy Howes, at showes@peds.umaryland.edu.

Peer-reviewed publications

Buckingham-Howes, S., Bento, S., Scaletti, L. A., Koenig, J. I., Granger, D. A., & Black, M. M. (in press). Prenatal drug exposure moderates the association between stress reactivity and cognitive functioning in adolescence. Special Issue--Teenage Brains: Think Different? inDevelopmental Neuroscience.

Robey, A., Buckingham-Howes, S., Salmeron, B. J., Black, M. M., & Riggins, T. (in press). Relations between prospective memory, cognitive abilities, and brain structure: Findings from a longitudinal study examining effects of prenatal drug exposure during adolescence. Special Issue: The Development of Children’s Prospective Memory in the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology.

Wang, Y., Buckingham-Howes, S., Nair, P., Zhu, S., Magder, L., & Black, M.M. (in press). Prenatal drug exposure, behavioral problems, and drug experimentation among African American, urban youth. Journal of Adolescent Health.

Buckingham-Howes, S., Berger, S.S., Scaletti, L.A., & Black, M.M. (2013). Systematic review of prenatal cocaine exposure and adolescent development. Pediatrics, 131(6), 1917-1936. doi:10.1542/peds.2012-0945

Buckingham-Howes, S., Oberlander, S.E., Kim, E., & Black, M. M. (2012). Prenatal drug exposure and peer victimization in early adolescence: Testing childhood anxiety/depression and aggression as possible mediators. Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, 33, 416-422.

Riggins, T., Cacic, K., Buckingham-Howes, S., Scaletti, L.A., Salmeron, B.J., & Black, M.M. (2012). Memory ability and hippocampal volume in adolescents with prenatal drug exposure. Neurotoxicology and Teratology, 34, 434-441.

Ackerman, J. P., Riggins, T, & Black, M. M. (2010). A review of the effects of prenatal cocaine exposure among school-age children. Pediatrics,125,554-565.

Ackerman, J. P., Llorente, A. M., Black, M. M., Ackerman, C. S., Mayes, L. A., & Nair, P. (2008). The effect of prenatal drug exposure and caregiving context on children’s performance on a task of sustained visual attention. Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, 29, 467-474.

Nair, P., Black, M. M., Ackerman, J. P., Schuler, M. E., & Keane, V. A. (2008). Children’s cognitive behavioral functioning at age 6 and 7: Prenatal drug exposure and caregiving environment. Ambulatory Pediatrics, 8, 154-162.

Nair, P., Schuler, M., Black, M., Kettinger, L. & Harrington, D. (2003) Cumulative environmental risk in substance abusing women: Early intervention, parenting stress, child abuse potential and child development. Child Abuse & Neglect, 27, 997-1017.

Schuler, M., Nair, P. & Kettinger, L. (2003) Drug-exposed infants and developmental outcome: Effects of a home intervention and ongoing maternal drug use. Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, 157, 133-138.

Schuler, M., Nair, P. & Harrington, D. (2003) Developmental outcome of drug-exposed children through 30-months: A comparison of Bayley and Bayley-II. Psychological Assessment, 15, 435-438.

Schuler, M., Nair, P. & Black, M. (2002) Ongoing maternal drug use, parenting attitudes, and home intervention: Effects on mother-child interactions at 18 months. Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, 23, 87-94.

Schuler, M. & Nair, P. (2001) Witnessing violence among inner-city children of substance-abusing and non-substance-abusing women. Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, 155, 342-346.

Schuler, M., Nair, P., Black, M. & Kettinger, L. (2000) Mother-infant interaction: Effects of a home intervention and ongoing maternal drug use. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 29, 424-431.

Kettinger, L., Nair, P. & Schuler, M. (2000) Exposure to environmental risk factors and parenting attitudes among substance-abusing women. American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, 26, 1-11.

Schuler, M. & Nair, P. (1999) Brief report: Frequency of maternal cocaine use during pregnancy and infant neurobehavioral outcome. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 24, 511-514.

Nair, P., Black, M., Schuler, M., Keane, V., Snow, L. & Rigney, B. (1997) Risk factors for disruption in primary caregiving among infants of substance abusing women. Child Abuse & Neglect, 21, 1039-1051.

Black, M., Nair, P., Kight, C., Wachtel, R., Roby, P. & Schuler, M. (1994) Parenting and early development among children of drug-abusing women: Effects of home intervention. Pediatrics, 94, 440-448.

Black, M., Schuler, M. & Nair, P. (1993) Prenatal drug exposure: Neurodevelopmental outcome and parenting environment.Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 18, 605-620.

Poster Presentations

Buckingham-Howes, S., & Black, M. M. (2014, March). Prenatal drug exposure, the stress response, and adolescent drug experimentation/externalizing behaviors. Poster to be presented at the bi-annual meeting of the Society for Research in Adolescence, Austin, TX.

Buckingham-Howes, S., Bento, S. P., Scaletti, L. A., Koenig, J. I., & Black, M. A. (2013, May). Prenatal drug exposure, the coritsol response, and cognitive performance in adolescence. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Psychological Science, Washington, DC.

Salmeron, B. J., Cacic, K., Buckingham-Howes, S., Riggins, T., Nair, P., & Black, M. M. (2013, May). Frontal lobe structure-function alterations in adolescents prenatally exposed to drugs of abuse. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the Society of Biological Psychiatry, San Francisco, CA.

Cacic, K., Saleron, B. J. , Kurup, P., Ross, T. J., Lejuez, C. J., & Black, M. M. (2012, April). Using the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) to examine neural correlates of risk-taking behavior in adolescents. Cognitive Neuroscience Society, Chicago, IL.

Salmeron, B. J., Riggins, R. Ernst, M., Kurup, P., Cacic, K., Black, M. M.. & Schweitzer, J. (2011, June). Prenatal drug exposure alters adolescent neural responses in probabilistic reward/punishment task. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping, Quebec City, Canada.

Buckingham-Howes, S., & Schaeffer, C. M., & Black, M. M. (2011, August). Prenatal Drug Exposure and Behavioral Outcomes in Adolescence: The Role of Neighborhood Violence and Social Support. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, Washington, D.C.

Kim, E., Ackerman, J. P., Buckingham-Howes, S., Lejuez, C. W., & Black, M. M. (2011, August). The effects of maternal care on risk-taking in prenatally drug exposed adolescents. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, Washington, D.C.

Buckingham-Howes, S., Oberlander, S. E., Kim, E., & Black, M. M. (2011, May). Prenatally drug-exposed adolescents and bullying/peer victimization: The mediating role of childhood aggression. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Psychological Science, Washington, D.C.

Scaletti, L. A., Buckingham-Howes, S., Koenig, J., Quigg, A. M., Black, M. M. (2011, May). Prenatal Drug Exposure, Food Insecurity, and Stress Response during Adolescence. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Psychological Science, Washington, D.C.

Candelaria, M., Nair, P, Buckingham-Howes, S. Wang, Y., Black, M. M. (2010, June). Behavioral and cognitive resilience among prenatally drug exposed children: Child and environmental predictors from toddlerhood. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the Head Start Research Conference in Washington, D.C.

Nair, P., Candelaria, M., Wang, Y., & Black, M. M. (2009, May). Early predictors of resilience in school age children of drug abusing women. Poster presented at the annual meeting of Pediatric Academic Societies, Baltimore, MD.

Buckingham-Howes, S., Candelaria, M., Kim, E. M., & Black, M. M. (2009, April). Externalizing behaviors and social problems in prenatally drug exposed, low-income, urban adolescents. Poster presented at the bi-annual meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Denver, CO.

Fitzmaurice, S., Buckingham-Howes, S., Black, M. M., & Ackerman, J. P. (2009, April). Caregiver-adolescent relationships and internalizing behaviors among prenatally drug-exposed adolescents. Poster presented at the bi-annual meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Denver, CO.

Riggins, T., Schweitzer, J., Kurup, P. K., Ross, T. J., Ernst, M., Nair, P., Black, M., & Salmeron, B. J. (2008, November). Effects of prenatal drug exposure on adolescent brain activation during a visuospatial working memory task. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, Washington, DC.

Ackerman, J. P., Lejuez, C. W., & Black, M. M. (2008, August). Risk decision-making among prenatally drug-exposed adolescents on the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART). Poster presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Society, Boston, MA.

Candelaria, M. A., Ackerman, J. P., Ackerman, C. S., Mayes, L., Nair, P., Black, M. (2008, August). The caregiving emotional environment: Relations with behavioral and academic achievement in drug exposed children. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Society, Boston, MA.

Buckingham-Howes, S., Black, M. M., & Nair, P. (2008, May). Home intervention increases cognitive development among prenatally drug exposed, urban, low-income infants. Poster presented at the Johns Hopkins Urban Health Institute Baltimore Research Day, Baltimore, MD.

DeBoer, T., Schweitzer, J., Kurup, P. K., Ross, T. J., Ernst, M., Nair, P., Black, M., & Salmeron, B. J. (2008, May). fMRI reveals long-term effects of prenatal drug exposure on visuospatial working memory networks during adolescence. Poster present at the annual meeting of the Association for Psychological Science, Chicago, IL.

Graham, M., Riggins, T., Ackerman, J., Black, M., Schweitzer, J. & Salmeron, B. J. (2008). Examining associations between functional brain activation and behavior in adolescents with a history of prenatal drug exposure. Poster presented at the Minority Recruitment and Training Program poster day at the National Institutes of Health.