A Social-Cognitive Model of Adolescent Substance Use

描述（由申请人提供）： 本研究的主要目的是探讨社会认知，调解和温和的环境因素-同龄人，家庭和上下文-和青少年药物使用和滥用之间的关系。该项目的理论基础是青少年健康风险的原型/意愿模型，这是一个修改后的双处理模型，提出了一个社会心理学的健康行为的角度。该模型的一个核心假设是，青少年从事两种不同类型的认知过程中的健康风险和健康风险行为：理性和反应。原型模型将为一系列实验室和现场研究的设计和实施提供信息，在这些研究中，风险相关的认知（例如，感知的风险、感知的个人脆弱性、社会规范、期望），在某些情况下，这些认知与行为之间的关系将得到检验。这些研究的参与者将包括14至21岁的青少年，他们的种族背景是欧洲裔美国人或非洲裔美国人。将特别注意人/情况的相互作用。例如，将评估青少年的冲动程度（自我控制），以确定这些因素是否影响他们在高低压力和/或情感状态增强的条件下对风险的思考方式和对风险机会的反应。压力源是多种多样的，包括背景（例如，环境风险）、认知负荷/分心和种族歧视。与原型模型的重点一致，这些研究将针对被认为可以修改的认知（例如，风险形象，行为意愿），因此，在设计干预措施和预防性干预措施，可以帮助青少年对物质作出更健康的决定的潜在效用。检查这些认知和早期行为可以提供关于为什么青少年使用物质以及为什么早期使用有时会变成滥用的信息。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The primary aim of this proposed research is to examine the social cognitions that mediate and moderate the relations between environmental factors--peers, family, and context--and adolescent drug use and abuse. The theoretical foundation of the project is the prototype/willingness model of adolescent health risk, a modified dual-processing model that presents a social-psychological perspective on health behavior. A core assumption in the model is that adolescents engage in two different types of cognitive processing with regard to health risk and health risk behavior: reasoned and reactive. The prototype model will inform the design and implementation of a series of lab and field studies in which risk-relevant cognitions (e.g., perceived risk, perceived personal vulnerability, social norms, expectancies) and, in some cases, the relation between these cognitions and behavior will be examined. Participants in these studies will include adolescents from age 14 to 21, whose ethnic background is either European American or African American. Particular attention will be paid to person/situation interactions. For example, adolescents' levels of impulsivity (self-control) will be assessed in order to determine if these factors influence the ways in which they think about risk and react to risk opportunity under conditions of high and low stress and/or enhanced affective states. Stressors are diverse and include context (e.g., environmental risk), cognitive load/distraction, and racial discrimination. Consistent with the focus of the prototype model, these studies will target cognitions that are thought to be amenable to modification (e.g., risk images, behavioral willingness), and therefore of potential utility in the design of interventions and preventive-interventions that can help adolescents make healthier decisions about substances. Examining these cognitions and early behavior can provide information about why adolescents use substances and why early use sometimes turns into abuse.