Doctoral Dissertation Research in DRMS: Neural Mechanisms Underlying the Protective Effects of Familism on Risk Taking among Latino Youth

青春期是一个高度脆弱的时期，易受冒险行为和不良决策的影响，从而导致药物使用和实验。拉丁裔青少年使用药物的比例更高，并且比其他美国青少年开始使用药物的年龄更早。家庭主义是一种特殊类型的家庭联系，对拉丁美洲家庭很重要，这意味着孩子？在支持和帮助家庭方面的作用。最近的研究表明，家庭主义是拉丁裔中与文化相关的防止吸毒的保护因素，但其作用机制尚不清楚。来自发育神经科学的证据表明，冒险行为在青春期增加，部分原因是大脑的变化？的神经电路。与自我调节有关的认知控制系统相对于与奖励评估和敏感性有关的社会情感系统发展得更慢。这种神经失衡可能会阻碍对风险的适当评估，并使青年人倾向于做出危险的决定。家族主义可能通过影响这些神经系统及其与现实生活中冒险行为的相关性来发挥作用。这项研究将利用多种方法，纵向设计，包括每日日记和功能性磁共振成像（fMRI），以检查神经相关性，家庭主义可能会缓冲拉丁美洲青年的冒险和药物启动。没有以前的研究探讨了文化的神经相关的危险behavior.This研究的风险承担拉丁美洲人和文化相关的保护因素，可以降低风险，在这个不断增长的人口中的文化的作用。这些发现将使我们能够梳理出认知控制和奖励系统与家庭主义和现实生活中的风险行为之间的关系，这有可能为成功的干预措施的设计提供信息，这些干预措施可以有效地针对这些系统，帮助年轻人做出更好，风险更小的决定。例如，如果较低水平的家族主义与认知控制缺陷有关，干预措施可以通过训练个人做出更多深思熟虑的决定来改善认知控制过程。如果家庭主义的程度越高，对冒险的回报敏感度就越低，那么，除了在青年人的生活中获得其他类型的回报，如积极的友谊之外，干预措施还可以促进对传统文化价值观的维护。除了为政策和干预提供信息外，这项研究的结果还有助于指导未来的研究，以确定其他文化相关因素，这些因素可能会保护不同的青少年免受吸毒和危险行为的影响。

Adolescence is a time of heightened vulnerability for risk taking behavior and poor decision making that give rise to substance use and experimentation. Latino adolescents have higher rates of substance use and begin using drugs at an earlier age than other U.S. youth. Familism is a specific type of family connection important to Latino families that implies children?s role in the support and assistance of their family. Recent research suggests that familism is a culturally relevant protective factor against drug use among Latinos, but the mechanisms by which it functions are not well understood. Evidence from developmental neuroscience suggests that risk-taking behavior increases during adolescence partly due to changes in the brain?s neural circuitry. The cognitive control system, which is involved in self-regulation, develops more slowly relative to the socio-emotional system, which is involved in reward evaluation and sensitivity. This neural imbalance may hinder appropriate evaluation of risk and bias youth towards risky decisions. Familism may function by influencing these neural systems and their correlates to real-life risk taking. This research will utilize a multi-method, longitudinal design, including daily diaries and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), to examine neural correlates by which familism may buffer Latino youth from risk taking and drug initiation. No previous studies have examined the role of culture on the neural correlates of risky behavior.This study advances our understanding of risk taking among Latinos and the culturally relevant protective factors that can reduce risk for drug initiation among this growing population. These findings will enable us to tease apart how the cognitive control and reward systems relate to familism and real-life risk behaviors, which has the potential to inform the design of successful interventions that can efficiently target these systems to help youth make better, less risky decisions. For instance, if lower levels of familism are associated with deficits in cognitive control, interventions can target the improvement of cognitive control processes by training individuals to make more deliberative decisions. If higher levels of familism are associated with reduced reward sensitivity to risk taking, interventions can promote the maintenance of traditional cultural values in addition to the acquisition of other types of reward in youths' lives, such as positive friendships. In addition to informing policy and intervention, findings from this study are useful to guide future research to identify other culturally relevant factors that may protect diverse youth from engaging in drug use and risky behavior.