Role of Psychopathology in Adolescent Problem Drug Use

说明(由申请人提供)：该提案寻求两年的支持，以便利用家庭项目的数据进行二次分析，该项目是一个性别均衡的小组研究，于1993年学生进入六年级时对429名农村青年及其家庭进行了研究。在七年的时间里，青少年和他们的父母在六个场合进行了有组织的互动采访和观察。本研究将以社会发展模型和发展心理病理学的观点为指导，考察行为问题和抑郁症状对青春期物质使用和18岁时问题使用的相关(相加)和交互作用。本研究还将考察青春期的社会发展过程在多大程度上调节精神病理学对物质使用和问题使用的影响。此外，还将测试假设关系中的性别差异，并将背景变量，如父母的精神病理学，包括在分析中。这项研究的结果将通过阐明可用于早期识别需要选择性预防服务的高危个人的变量，以及通过确定调节精神病理学和问题使用之间的联系的可塑性社会发展过程，为青少年预防药物滥用提供信息。

DESCRIPTION (provided by the applicant): This proposal seeks two years of support to conduct secondary analyses using data from Project Family, a gender-balanced panel study of 429 rural youths and their families constituted in 1993 when students entered the sixth grade. Adolescents and their parents were interviewed and observed in structured interactions on six occasions across seven years. Guided by the social development model and a developmental psychopathology perspective, this study will examine the relative (additive) and interactive effects of conduct problems and depressive symptoms on substance use throughout adolescence and on problem use at age 18. The study also will examine the extent to which social developmental processes during adolescence mediate the effects of psychopathology on substance use and problem use. Further, gender differences in the hypothesized relations will be tested, and background variables, such as parental psychopathology, will be included in the analyses. Findings from the study will inform drug abuse prevention for adolescents by elucidating variables that may be used for the early identification of at-risk individuals in need of selective prevention services, and by identifying malleable social developmental processes that mediate the link between psychopathology and problem use.