Exposure to child maltreatment and related aspects of the rearing environment (e.g. parental substance use, parental violence) have been shown to increase the risk for substance use disorders (SUD) and comorbid psychopathology (McLaughlin et al. 2010). However, recent studies have shown that these exposures are not as strongly associated with SUD among African-Americans (AAs; Sartor et al. 2015; Werner et al. 2016a, b) and that associations may differ by gender (Smith et al. 2010; Schiff et al. 2014). These findings, together with known differences in rates of exposure to childhood trauma (Roberts et al. 2011; Sumner et al. 2015) and adult SUD (Grant et al. 2015; Chou et al. 2016; Hasin et al. 2016), warrant further research investigating potential racial/ethnic and gender heterogeneity in the relation of childhood trauma and adult SUD.
