A challenge in conducting pediatric research is selecting reliable, valid measurement protocols, across a range of domains, that are appropriate for the developmental level of the study population. The purpose of this report is to introduce the research community to the Pediatric Development Research Domain of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)–supported PhenX Toolkit (consensus measures for Phenotypes and eXposures). The PhenX Toolkit provides a catalog of recommended measurement protocols to address a wide range of research topics that are suitable for inclusion in a variety of study designs. In 2018, the Pediatric Development Working Group of experts identified 18 well-established protocols of pediatric development for inclusion in the Toolkit to complement existing protocols. Collectively, the protocols assess parenting, child care attendance and quality, peer relationships, home environment, neonatal abstinence, emotional and behavioral functioning, and other factors that influence child development. The Toolkit provides detailed data collection protocols, data dictionaries, and worksheets to help investigators incorporate these protocols into their study designs. Using standard protocols in studies with pediatric participants will support consistent data collection, improve data quality, and facilitate cross-study analyses to ultimately improve child health.

Adolescent substance abuse is the nation's #1 public health problem. It originates out of a developmental era where experimentation with the world is increasingly taking place, and where major changes in physical self and social relationships are taking place. These changes cannot be understood by any one discipline nor can they be described by focusing only on the behavioral and social problems of this age period, the characteristics of normal development, or the pharmacology and addictive potential of specific drugs. They require knowledge of the brain's systems of reward and control, genetics, psychopharmacology, personality, child development, psychopathology, family dynamics, peer group relationships, culture, social policy, and more. Drawing on the expertise of the leading researchers in this field, this Handbook provides the most comprehensive summarization of current knowledge about adolescent substance abuse. The Handbook is organized into eight sections covering the literature on the developmental context of this life period, the epidemiology of adolescent use and abuse, similarities and differences in use, addictive potential, and consequences of use for different drugs; etiology and course as characterized at different levels of mechanistic analysis ranging from the genetic and neural to the behavioural and social. Two sections cover the clinical ramifications of abuse, and prevention and intervention strategies to most effectively deal with these problems. The Handbook's last section addresses the role of social policy in framing the problem, in addressing it, and explores its potential role in alleviating it.

Vols. for 1980- issued in three parts: Series, Authors, and Titles.