Leslie Leve Research

Open Grants

Prevention Research Center: Parenting Among Women who are Opioid Users
Funding period: 2019–2024
PI: Dr. Leslie Leve (Co-PI: Dr. Philip Fisher)
Funded by: National Institute on Drug Abuse
Grant number: P50 DA048756
This Center of Excellence aims to improve the well-being of individuals, families, and communities affected by the opioid crisis through a focus on behavioral (parental responsivity, warmth) and neurocognitive systems (e.g., executive functioning, reward responsiveness) that are underlying mechanisms common to both addiction issues and parenting challenges. The Center includes three research projects, an administrative core, a pilot & training core, and a data science core. The Research Projects and Cores are based upon a unifying conceptual model and employ a translational science approach in which basic science investigations of underlying mechanisms are leveraged in the development and evaluation of scalable interventions that are designed to deliver population-level impacts on policy and practice.  

An Adoption Study of the Development of Early Substance Use: The Joint Roles of Genetic Influences, Prenatal Risk, Rearing Environment, and Pubertal Maturation
Funding period: 2018–2024
Subaward PI: Dr. Leslie Leve (PI: Dr. Jenae Neiderhiser, Penn State University)
Funded by: National Institute on Drug Abuse
Grant number: R01 DA045108
Visit the study website.
This study examines how risk for substance use is affected by complex interactions between a person’s genetics, prenatal experiences, rearing environment, and hormonal changes during adolescence.  

The Early Growth and Development Study Pediatric Cohort
Funding period: 2016–2023
PI: Dr. Leslie Leve
Funded by: National Institutes of Health Office of the Director
Grant number: UG3/UH3 OD023389
Visit the study website
A dual-family adoption design is used to distinguish the role of environmental exposures from that of heritable influences and identify how each affects children’s health outcomes. 


Closed Grants

Utilizing Adoption-Based Research Designs to Examine the Interplay Between Family Relationship Processes and Child Developmental Outcomes  
Funding period: 2015–2017
PI: Dr. Leslie Leve (PI: Dr. Gordon Harold, University of Sussex)
Grant number: 1640492
A longitudinal U.S. adoption-at-birth sample and a UK sample of children conceived through IVF are used to understand the interplay between family interaction patterns, parent mental health, and child psychopathology. 

Translational Drug Abuse Prevention Center (TDAP)
Funding period: 2013–2018
PIs: Drs. Philip Fisher, Leslie Leve, David DeGarmo (PI: Dr. Patricia Chamberlain, Oregon Social Learning Center)
Funded by: National Institute on Drug Abuse
Grant number: 1P50DA035763
To improve outcomes for children and families involved in child welfare systems, targets include mechanisms associated with early life adversity and adolescents’ risky decision making, adolescent girls’ drug use and engagement in HIV-risk behaviors, and fidelity of implementation of extant evidence-based interventions into CWS settings. 

Family and Peer Processes and Gene-Environment Interplay in Early Adolescence: An Adoption Study
Funding period: 2014–2017
PI: Dr. Leslie Leve
Funded by: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
Grant number: R56 HD042608
The aim is to disentangle inherited influences from social–environmental influences on youth behavior and competencies during the transition to middle school. 

Girls-Specific Prevention Program for Substance Use and Delinquency
Funding period: 2015–2017
Subaward PI: Dr. Leslie Leve (PI: Dr. Sarah Walker, University of Washington)
Funded by: National Institute on Drug Abuse
Grant number: R21 DA037455
At-risk justice-involved girls receive support via cognitive-behavioral and moral reasoning principles, management of internalizing symptoms, relationship-based scenarios, and parent skill building. 

Siblings Reared Apart: A Naturalistic Cross-Fostering Study of Young Children
Funding period: 2013–2018
PI: Dr. Leslie Leve
Funded by: National Institute on Drug Abuse
Grant number: R01 DA035062
A naturalistic human cross-fostering design is used to examine childhood pathways to development by identifying nuances in the rearing environment associated with specific child risk behaviors and competencies. 

Utilizing Adoption-Based Research Designs to Examine the Interplay Between Family Relationship Processes and Child Developmental Outcomes  
Funding period: 2015–2017
PI: Dr. Leslie Leve; (PI: Dr. Gordon Harold, University of Sussex)
Grant number: 1640492
A longitudinal U.S. adoption-at-birth sample and a UK sample of children conceived through IVF are used to understand the interplay between family interaction patterns, parent mental health, and child psychopathology. 

Translational Drug Abuse Prevention Center (TDAP)
Funding period: 2013–2018
Subaward PIs: Drs. Phil Fisher, Leslie Leve, David DeGarmo (MPI: Dr. Patricia Chamberlain, Oregon Social Learning Center)
Funded by: National Institute on Drug Abuse
Grant number: P50 DA035763
TDAP seeks to improve outcomes for child welfare system–involved children and families, including those with high early life adversity and risky decision making during early adolescence and high rates of drug use and HIV-risk behaviors. 

Gene-Environment Interplay and Childhood Obesity: An Adoption Study
Funding period: 2013–2016
PI: Dr. Leslie Leve (Co PI: Dr. Jody Ganiban, George Washington University)
Funded by: National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease
Grant number: R01 DK090264
This study is exploring the eating habits and behaviors of adopted children, adoptive parents, and birth parents from birth to middle childhood. A study focus is identification of environmental and genetic factors that promote physical growth and healthy weight. 

Gene-Environment Interplay and the Development of Psychiatric Symptoms in Children
Funding period: 2010–2016
PI: Dr. Leslie Leve (CoPI:Dr. Jenae Neiderhiser, Penn State University)
Funded by: National Institute of Mental Health
Grant number: R01 MH092118
This study is examining the interplay between genetic, prenatal, and postnatal environmental influences on early pathways to various behaviors, including anxiety and depression, by inter-viewing adoptive parents about child behavior and symptoms between ages 6 and 8 years. 

Girls-Specific Prevention Program for Substance Use and Delinquency
Funding period: 2015–2017
PI: Dr. Leslie Leve
Funded by: National Institute on Drug Abuse
Grant number: R21 DA037455
This program is testing effective-ness of a program for justice- involved girls at risk of escalating delinquency and substance use. It uses cognitive-behavioral and moral reasoning principles found to be effective for at-risk youths. It emphasizes management of distressing internalizing symptoms, relationship-based scenarios for skill generalization, expanded cognitive restructuring strategies, and parent engagement and skill building. 

Early Family Prevention of Adolescent Alcohol, Drug Use, and Psychopathology
Funding period: 2014–2015
PIs: Dr. Leslie Leve, (Dr. Daniel Shaw, University of Pittsburgh; Dr. Thomas Dishion, Arizona State University; Dr. Melvin Wilson, University of Virginia)
Funded by: National Institute on Drug Abuse
Grant number: R01 DA036832
This randomized prevention trial is testing the long-term effects of the Family Check-Up on parenting practices from toddlerhood through adolescence on adolescent problem behavior. The sample, recruited in three geographically, socioeconomically, and ethnically diverse U.S. communities, was originally assessed at child age 2 and then yearly through age 10.5. This follow-up study is assessing families at child age 13.5 and 15.5, and DNA samples are being collected from the youths. 

Early Growth and Development Study: Family Process, Genes, and School Entry
Funding period: 2007– 2014
PI: Dr. Leslie Leve
Funded by: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institute on Drug Abuse, Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research
This study builds on emerging evidence about the relationship between heredity and the family environment, that is, nature and nurture, and how the two work together and separately in child development. It is the first of its kind to examine these issues while also examining general adoption issues, such as openness. The study follows a linked sample of adopted children, adoptive parents, and birth parents as the children enter the early school-age years; each birth parent is surveyed once and each adoptive family three times (child age 4.5, 6, and 7 years).