With the growing racial and ethnic diversity of the U.S. population, about half the sample in the ABCD Study will be from minority groups. The National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) brings to the ABCD study a crucial focus on the ways socioeconomic, cultural, racial, and ethnic variables both affect and may be affected by substance use, mental health, and other life and health outcomes. Substance use behavior varies by race and ethnicity as well as by socioeconomic status and gender—for example, tobacco use among most minority youth is less prevalent than among Whites (Johnston et al., 2017), even though some minorities have worse socioeconomic status and higher levels of daily stress from discrimination, food insecurity, and diminished educational opportunities. By assembling a cohort that reflects the diversity of the U.S. in terms of race, ethnicity, gender, urbanicity, and socioeconomic status (for detailed information on sampling methodology, see Garavan et al., in submission), the ABCD study will provide an opportunity to evaluate the extent to which these differences and similarities are related to neurodevelopment and other aspects of adolescent health.
