Adolescent Peer Social Network Dynamics and Problem Behavior

描述（由申请人提供）：生态学理论表明，早期青少年同龄人群体经常形成，鼓励问题行为，导致更紧密，倾向于偏差的同龄人群体，等等，在一个自我强化的循环中。我们把这个过程称为有毒的同伴传染。 它最好被概念化为非线性动态系统（NDS）。我们建议开发NDS模型，解释发病和增长的问题行为（反社会行为，侵略，物质使用）在中学同龄人的社会生态，特别是检查有毒的同伴传染作为一个解释性假设。这项研究将在21所六至八年级的中学进行，这些中学参与了一项已经在进行的、由NIDA资助的积极行为支持（PBS）计划的随机分组试验。一个主要目标是调查学校之间，特别是PBS计划和控制学校之间的有毒同伴传染差异的变化。该项目需要在多个场合收集社会关系（社会网络）和相关行为数据，并观察它们之间的相互依赖模式。在21所参与学校的每一所学校，每学年将进行四次评估，对连续两个进入六年级的队列进行评估，直到八年级结束;因此，每个队列进行12次观察。学校一级的模型将使用SIENA创建，这是一种最近开发的统计方法，专门用于估计不断发展的社交网络和共同发展行为的模型。此外，当学校之间的影响差异很大时，将开发两级模型。为了实现这些雄心勃勃的目标与这个大的，不同的样本的学校和学生，有必要执行几个重大升级的SIENA计算机软件，提高其估计性能，通过移植到多处理器计算环境，并提高其能力，包括交互作用，全信息多级模型，和跨级别的相互作用。为此，我们与开发SIENA的研究人员合作，进行项目目标所需的升级。该项目的结果将包括：（a）对中学不同抽样学校中有害的同伴传染流行情况的估计;（B）最有可能和最不可能发生这种情况的条件;（c）公共广播作为阻止这种情况的一种方式的有效性;（d）为处理这一问题提出同伴指导的干预措施的建议。公共卫生相关性：本研究将探讨一项已获资助的学校层面积极行为干预的随机分组试验对早期青少年问题行为与同伴群体动态之间随时间推移的相互依赖性的影响。这一过程是从社会生态学和发展理论发展而来的，是有害的同伴传染。 从属行为相互依存的非线性动态模型将使用SIENA（一种专门为模拟此类过程而开发的计算机程序）从纵向（4x/年，6至8年级）数据进行统计估计。研究结果将解释同伴关系在问题行为发展中的作用，积极行为支持对这种联系的影响，并为未来的干预提出新的途径。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Ecological theory suggests that early adolescent peer groups regularly form which encourage problem behavior, leading to even closer, deviance-prone peer groups, and so on in a self-reinforcing cycle. We call this process toxic peer contagion. It is best conceptualized as a Nonlinear Dynamic System (NDS). We propose to develop NDS models that explain the onset to and growth of problem behaviors (antisocial behavior, aggression, substance use) in middle school peer social ecologies, and particularly to examine toxic peer contagion as an explanatory hypothesis. The study will be conducted in 21 sixth- to eighth-grade middle schools involved in an already underway, NIDA- funded group-randomized trial of the Positive Behavior Support (PBS) program. A major goal is to investigate variation in toxic peer contagion differences between schools, especially between PBS program and control schools. The project requires collecting social relationship (social network) and relevant behavioral data on multiple occasions, and observing the pattern of interdependence between them over time. Assessments will be conducted four times per school year, for two consecutive entering sixth-grade cohorts, through the end of their eighth-grade year in each of the 21 participating schools; thus, 12 observations per cohort. School-level models will be created using SIENA, a recently developed statistical methodology specifically designed to estimate models of evolving social networks and co-evolving behavior. Also, two-level models will be developed when effects vary significantly across schools. In order to accomplish these ambitious goals with this large, diverse sample of schools and students, it is necessary to perform several major upgrades to the SIENA computer software, improving its estimation performance by porting it to multiprocessor computing environments, and enhancing its ability to include interaction effects, full- information multilevel models, and cross-level interactions. For this purpose, we are partnering with the researchers who developed SIENA to make the upgrades necessary for project goals. The results of this project will include: (a) estimates of the prevalence of toxic peer contagion in a varigated sample of middle schools; (b) conditions under which it is most and least likely to occur; (c) the effectiveness of PBS as a way to discourage it; and (d) recommendations for peer-directed interventions for dealing with this problem. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This project will examine the effect of a group-randomized trial of an already funded school-level positive behavior intervention on the over-time interdependence between early adolescent problem behavior and peer group dynamics. This process, developed from theories of social ecologies and development, is toxic peer contagion. Nonlinear dynamic models of affiliation-behavior interdependence will be statistically estimated from longitudinal (4x/yr, 6th to 8th grade) data using SIENA, a computer program specifically developed to model such processes. Results will explain the role of peer affiliations in development of problem behavior, the effect of positive behavior support on this linkage, and suggest new avenues for future interventions.