Youth Violence Exposure: A National Longitudinal Study

描述（由申请人提供）：该项目的总体目标是通过对12-17岁青少年的新全国家庭概率样本进行三波纵向调查，获得1995年全国青少年调查（NSA）的10年更新和扩展。最初的国家安全局是通过电话对4023名年龄在12至17岁之间的男女青少年进行的全国家庭概率抽样调查。被提议的项目所使用的方法是有意模仿最初的NSA。拟议中的项目将包括对4000名12-17岁的新群体进行基线调查，使用与最初的国家安全局相同的样本选择和访谈程序。拟议的项目还将包括在基线评估后一年和两年后对青少年参与者进行两次额外评估。与最初的国家安全局一样，结构化访谈将用于测量发生在家庭、学校和社区环境中的目击和直接暴力受害（例如，性侵犯、身体攻击和身体虐待惩罚）的广泛暴露。几种类型的心理健康问题将被测量，包括创伤后应激障碍，重度抑郁症，自杀意念和企图，药物使用和滥用，以及犯罪。这项研究还将从父母和青少年那里获得有关学业成绩的信息。该计划将为过去十年美国青少年在暴力暴露、物质使用和相关调整问题上的变化提供宝贵的比较。尽管以美国国家安全局为模型，但拟议中的项目在几个重要方面与最初的项目有所不同。首先，拟议研究中对暴力暴露的评估范围更广、更具体；具体来说，将扩大对体罚虐待的评估，并将更全面地关注学校、家庭和社区暴力事件，以便更好地描述青少年在这些重要环境中遭受暴力的情况。其次，评估结果的范围将多样化，不仅包括心理健康、药物滥用和犯罪，还包括学习成绩，这是儿童适应的重要发展标志，以及危险的性行为。第三，建议的调查方法是纵向的。因此，拟议项目的具体目标是：1)获得关于青少年在一系列环境（学校、家庭、社区）中遭受暴力（直接和目睹）的患病率和描述性数据，包括性侵犯、身体攻击、身体虐待惩罚、家庭暴力、社区暴力和学校暴力；2)确定1995-2005年期间，在全国代表性的12-17岁青少年样本中，暴露于暴力、精神健康问题的普遍程度以及暴露于暴力导致一系列不良社会和精神健康结果的风险或保护因素方面是否发生了变化；3)研究暴力暴露、精神健康发展、药物使用和滥用问题、危险性行为、犯罪和学业成绩变化的纵向轨迹；4)检验不良家庭环境与犯罪和学习成绩差之间的关系在很大程度上是由暴露于暴力和/或与暴力有关的心理健康问题介导的；5)测试上述关系在多大程度上受到性别、种族和民族的调节。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The overall objective of this project is to obtain a 10-year update and extension of the 1995 National Survey of Adolescents (NSA) by conducting a three wave, longitudinal survey of a new national household probability sample of 12-17 year-old adolescents. The original NSA was conducted via telephone with a national household probability sample of 4,023 male and female adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17. The methods to be used for the proposed project are deliberately modeled after the original NSA. The proposed project will involve a baseline survey of a new cohort of 4,000 12-17 year-olds using identical sample selection and interview procedures as that in the original NSA. The proposed project will also include two additional assessments of adolescent participants to be conducted one and two years after the baseline assessment. As was the case with the original NSA, a structured interview will be used to measure a broad range of exposure to witnessed and direct violence victimization (e.g., sexual assault, physical assault, and physically abusive punishment) occurring in family, school, and community settings. Several types of mental health problems will be measured, including PTSD, major depression, suicide ideation and attempts, substance use and abuse, and delinquency. The study will also obtain information from parents as well as adolescents regarding academic performance. The proposed project will provide invaluable comparisons about changes over the past decade in violence exposure, substance use, and related adjustment issues among American youth. Although modeled after the NSA, the proposed project departs from the original in several important respects. First, the assessment of violence exposure in the proposed study is broader and more specific; specifically, assessment of physically abusive punishment will be expanded, and there will be a more comprehensive focus on episodes of school, domestic, and community violence to permit greater description of adolescents' exposure to violence in each of these important settings. Second, the range of outcomes assessed will be diversified beyond mental health, substance abuse, and delinquency to include academic performance, an important developmental marker of child adjustment, as well as risky sexual behaviors. Third, the proposed survey methodology is longitudinal. Thus, specific aims of the proposed project are: 1)To obtain prevalence rates and descriptive data regarding adolescents' exposure to violence (both direct and witnessed) across a range of settings (school, home, community), including sexual assault, physical assault, physically abusive punishment, domestic violence, community violence and school violence; 2) To determine whether there have been changes among a nationally representative sample of 12-17 year olds over the 1995-2005 period with respect to the prevalence of exposure to violence, mental health problems, and risk or protective factors for a range of adverse social and mental health outcomes given exposure to violence; 3) To examine the longitudinal trajectory of exposure to violence, development of mental health and substance use and abuse problems, risky sexual behaviors, delinquency and changes in academic performance; 4) To test the hypothesis that the relationship between adverse family environment and the outcomes of delinquency and poor academic performance are substantially mediated by exposure to violence and/or violence-related mental health problems; and 5)To test the extent to which the relationships described above are moderated by gender, race, and ethnicity.