Substance Use & Girls: Stress, Hormones & Puberty

描述（由申请人提供）：虽然在小学早期，女孩使用香烟、酒精和大麻的比例低于男孩，但到八年级时，女孩使用物质的比例迅速赶上并超过男孩。拟议的研究是一项初步研究的试点，该研究调查了与青春期早期女孩物质使用的开始和升级有关的过程，重点关注三个领域，即压力事件，青春期成熟和时机，以及荷尔蒙的影响。在指导初步研究的一般模型中，这些领域通过日常情感、攻击、抑郁和与物质使用同伴的联系与女孩的早期物质使用有关。本研究的具体目的是：(1)探讨对五、八年级女生及其母亲进行多方法密集评估的可行性，评估女孩在月经周期中的生活压力、情绪反应、青春期成熟和激素。(2)研究五年级和八年级女生每日和每周情绪反应测量的可变性、可靠性和有效性，通过每日影响评分、与吸毒同伴的关联以及附属应对来测量，并研究获得这些变量和激素水平的足够样本所需的每日和每周数据的数量和时间。我们还将评估一些基于问卷的测量方法的心理测量特性，特别关注五年级的样本。(3)获得以下方面的效应大小估计：(a)受试者在慢性和偶发性压力事件、激素水平和物质使用前体之间的双变量关系(作为年级（5 vs. 8）和青春期时间（早vs.准时/晚）的函数；在这些变量和八年级学生的早期药物使用之间；(b)参与者荷尔蒙水平、情绪反应、附属应对和与物质使用同伴的关联之间的双变量关系，作为年级和青春期时间的函数。为了实现这些目标，我们将对80名女孩进行评估，其中40名在五年级和八年级，每个年级有20名早产儿，使用多种方法，包括由母亲和女孩完成的问卷调查，评估慢性和偶发性压力的生活压力访谈，以及由女护士评估女孩的身体成熟度。在至少四周的时间里，我们将使用电子个人数据助理（PDA）获取每周的雌二醇、睾酮、黄体酮和皮质醇的测量数据，以及当天和当天结束时的评估数据。所有评估将根据月经来潮女孩的月经周期进行计时，非月经来潮女孩的时间与月经来潮女孩的时间相挂钩。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): While girls' use of cigarettes, alcohol and marijuana is less than that of boys in the early elementary years, the prevalence of girls' substance use quickly catches up to and surpasses that of boys by 8th grade. The proposed study is a pilot for a primary study investigating the processes related to the initiation and escalation of substance use among girls in early adolescence focusing on three domains, stressful events, pubertal maturation and timing, and hormonal influences. In the general model guiding the primary study, these domains are related to early substance use among girls through daily affect, aggression, depression, and affiliation with substance using peers. The specific aims of this study are: (1) to examine the feasibility of an intensive multi-method assessment conducted with 5th and 8th grade girls and their mothers assessing girls' life stress, emotional responses, pubertal maturation and hormones across the menstrual cycle. (2) To examine the variability, reliability and validity of daily and weekly measures of emotional responses, as measured by daily affect ratings, association with substance-using peers, and affiliative coping, for 5th and 8th grade girls and to examine the amount and timing of daily and weekly data required to obtain adequate samples of these variables and hormonal levels. We will also assess the psychometric properties of some of our questionnaire-based measures, with a particular focus on the 5th grade sample. (3) To obtain estimates of effect sizes for: (a) between participant bivariate relations among chronic and episodic stressful events, hormonal levels, and precursors to substance use as a function of grade (5 vs. 8th) and pubertal timing (early vs. on-time/late); and between these variables and early substance use for 8th graders; and (b) within participant bivariate relations between hormonal levels, emotional responses, affiliative coping, and affiliation with substance-using peers, as a function of grade and pubertal timing. To address these aims, we will assess 80 girls, 40 in both the 5th and 8th grade, with 20 early maturers in each grade using multiple methods, including questionnaires completed by both mothers and girls, a Life Stress Interview to assess chronic and episodic stress, and an assessment of the girls' physical maturation by a female nurse. For a minimum of four weeks, we will obtain weekly measures of estradiol, testosterone, progesterone and cortisol, as well as momentary and end of day assessments using an Electronic Personal Data Assistant (PDA). All assessments will be timed to menstruating girls' menstrual cycle, with timing of non-menstruating girls yoked to that of menstruating girls.