A - 55 Exploring the Impact of Parental Substance Use Problems and Behavior on Pre-Adolescent Cognitive Performance

Abstract Objective Adults with a parental history of substance use problems (PH+) exhibit deficits in verbal, language, visuomotor, visuospatial, and executive functioning skills. However, findings on whether PH+ affects cognition developmentally is limited. This study explored how PH+ relates to preadolescents’ cognitive performance while controlling for environmental parental factors. Methods We sampled 11,633 participants aged 8–11 (47.74% female) from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study at baseline. The Family History Assessment evaluated PH+ of alcohol and other drug use problems, with scores ranging from 0–2 parents with problematic use (PH-, PH + 1, PH + 2). PH+ of alcohol (PHA+) and other drugs (PHD+) were assessed separately. The neurocognitive battery included the NIH Toolbox, RAVLT, and Matrix Reasoning. Parental factors assessed included prenatal substance exposure, family conflict, parental warmth, parental monitoring, and parental mental health history. Hierarchical linear mixed-effects models analyzed relationships between PHA+, PHD+, other parental variables of interest, and cognitive outcomes while controlling for demographics. Results PHA+ significantly predicted inhibitory control performance, with PHA + 1 youth performing better than PHA- youth (β = 0.71, p = 0.04), above and beyond other parental behaviors. Conversely, PHD + 1 youth scored lower on immediate (β = −0.3107, p = 0.02) and delayed (β = −3.58, p = 0.01) verbal memory recall, as well as visuospatial memory (β = −1.50, p = 0.003) compared to PHD- youth. Parental factors broadly predicted performance, with parental monitoring and prenatal exposure emerging as the most consistent predictors. Conclusion These findings underscore the complex relationship between PH+, environmental parental factors, and cognition among preadolescents. Future work should explore mechanisms linking parental behaviors to adolescent cognition, given these modifiable factors offer potential for intervention.