Friendship Networks and Emergence of Substance Use

描述（由申请人提供）：我们建议通过对6年级至9年级青少年友谊网络的纵向调查，推进同伴对物质使用影响的研究。我们的方法结合了青少年问题行为，发展心理学和网络分析研究领域的优势。该项目的具体目标是：（1）审查药物使用作为友谊群体相似性基础的发展作用;（2）确定友谊网络对药物使用的影响以及药物使用对友谊选择的贡献;（3）确定朋友对药物使用影响的调节因素;（4）考察除了直接友谊群体之外的同伴影响的网络来源，（5）为确定证据的效力-基于友谊网络的预防计划，以及这些影响作为该计划对物质使用影响的调解人的作用。该提案寻求资金，以分析在大型预防试验中收集的有价值的数据，其具体目标不包括处理和分析我们工作的关键信息。该研究收集了28所学校（N= 11，000+）两个年级组所有学生的友谊选择和各种自我报告措施的五波数据，以及学校和社区特征的措施。这个数据集是上级的同行影响力的研究，它衡量朋友的特点，从他们自己的报告，包括几个纵向评估的友谊网络和结果，涵盖了一个发展时期，这是至关重要的物质使用和同伴关系，使用农村设置，提供最大的覆盖范围的友谊网络，并抽样足够的学校，以研究跨设置的同行过程中的变化。我们还将克服一些限制和偏见的同行影响力通过纵向扩散分析，捕捉影响力和友谊选择过程的扩展网络的影响力之前的研究。理论家和研究者都非常重视朋友对物质使用的影响，因此预防计划强调同伴抵抗技能，并利用同伴领导者帮助传达他们的信息。这项拟议的研究努力克服我们对同伴影响的理解的局限性，这些局限性阻碍了这些努力，从而寻求帮助减少未来的物质使用和滥用。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): We propose to advance the study of peer influence on substance use through a longitudinal investigation of adolescent friendship networks from 6th through 9th grades. Our approach combines the strengths of the fields of research on adolescent problem behavior, developmental psychology, and network analysis. The project's specific aims are 1) to examine the developing role of substance use as a basis of similarity within friendship groups; 2) to determine both the influence of friendship networks on substance use and the contribution of substance use to friendship selection; 3) to determine the moderators of friends' influence on substance use; 4) to examine network sources of peer influence other than the immediate friendship group, and 5) to establish the effects of an evidence-based prevention program on friendship networks and the role of those effects as mediators of the program's impact on substance use. This proposal seeks funding to analyze valuable data being collected in a large prevention trial, the specific aims of which do not include processing and analysis of the key information for our work. That study gathered five waves of data on both friendship choices and a variety of self-report measures for all students in two grade cohorts at 28 schools (N=11,000+) as well as measures of school and community characteristics. This dataset is superior to prior studies of peer influence in that it measures friends' characteristics from their own reports, includes several longitudinal assessments of both friendship networks and outcomes, covers a developmental period that is critical for both substance use and peer relations, uses rural settings that provide maximum coverage of friendship networks, and samples enough schools to study variation in peer processes across settings. We also will overcome some limitations and biases of prior research on peer influence through longitudinal diffusion analyses that capture the extended network implications of influence and friendship selection processes. Both theorists and researchers attribute great importance to friends' influence on substance use, and accordingly prevention programs emphasize peer resistance skills and use peer leaders to help convey their message. The proposed study strives to overcome the limitations in our understanding of peer influence that hamper these efforts and thereby seeks to help reduce future substance use and abuse.