Predictors of Aggression In Institutionalized Youth

描述（由申请人提供）：本R 03拟议调查的目标是前瞻性地确定预测并最终防止青少年在机构治疗期间表现出极端攻击性的个人和背景因素。拟议的研究使用现有的数据档案，以解决这一广泛的目标，1）检索和编码个人，上下文，和行为数据从存档的来源（入院/治疗记录和危急事件数据库）;和2）通过检查自我和他人的预测，测试在机构化护理期间发生的攻击行为模型，定向攻击行为和相关的关键事件（即，隔离和限制）从个人和上下文变量。这项调查是由几个具体目标指导的。首先，确定个人的生物心理特征和上下文社会化的影响，与发生的自我导向和他人导向的攻击在机构治疗。这涉及到在一个非常高风险的青年样本中确定一些因素，这些因素使那些在机构治疗期间从事严重攻击行为的人与那些不从事严重攻击行为的人区别开来。第二，研究在何种程度上的个人和背景因素预测的模式和持久性的侵略整个机构的待遇。这涉及到研究个体背景因素如何导致治疗期间攻击性的增加，减少或非线性趋势。通过这两组分析得出的自我和他人导向的攻击行为的个人背景预测因子的信息将被用来制定评估措施，适用于研究和实践的发展和治疗的侵略在非常高风险的青年。该工具将被设计为在该人群中进行更大规模的攻击性纵向研究的基础，也将直接适用于青少年个人的治疗计划。这项调查的一个关键重点也是指定一个模型的攻击非常高风险的青年，可用于促进研究结果的传播和刺激更多的研究。拟议研究的结果将对主办机构以及投资于减少和预防高危儿童和青少年攻击性和自我伤害行为的科学家和从业人员的更大受众产生影响。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of this R03 proposed investigation is to identify prospectively the individual and contextual factors that predict and can ultimately prevent extreme aggression exhibited by youth during institutional treatment. The proposed study uses existing data archives to address this broad goal by 1) Accessing and coding individual, contextual, and behavioral data from archived sources (intake/treatment records and a critical incident database) in an inpatient youth psychiatric facility; and 2) Testing a model of aggressive behavior occurring during institutionalized care by examining the prediction of self- and other-directed aggressive behaviors and related critical incidents (i.e., seclusions and restraints) from individual and contextual variables. This investigation is guided by several specific aims. First, to identify the individual biopsychological characteristics and contextual socializing influences that are associated with the occurrence of self-directed and other-directed aggression during institutional treatment. This involves identifying factors in a very high-risk sample of youth that discriminate those who engage in serious aggression during institutional treatment from those who do not. Second, to examine the extent to which individual and contextual factors predict the patterns and persistence of aggression throughout institutional treatment. This involves the study of how individual-contextual factors lead to increases, decreases, or non-linear trends in aggression during treatment. Information about individual-contextual predictors of self- and other-directed aggressive behaviors derived through the two sets of analyses will be used to develop assessment measures suitable for research and practice on the development and treatment of aggression in very high-risk youth. This instrument will be designed to serve as the basis for a larger scale longitudinal study of aggression in that population, and also will be directly applicable to treatment planning for individual youth. A critical focus of this investigation also is to specify a model of aggression in very high-risk youth that can be used to facilitate the dissemination of findings and spur additional research. Results from the proposed study will have implications for the host facility as well as to the larger audience of scientists and practitioners invested in the reduction and prevention of assaultive and self-injurious behaviors among high-risk children and adolescents.