Self-Regulation & Attentional Mechanisms of Sexual Risk Taking in Young Drinkers

自律

• 批准号: 8193992
• 负责人: Kathryn Rose Macapagal
• 金额: $ 3.4万
• 依托单位: TRUSTEES OF INDIANA UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-11-16 至 2012-07-01
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8193992
• 关键词: Address; Adopted; Alcohol abuse; Alcohol consumption; Alcohols; Attention; Behavior; Behavior Control; Calculi; Cognition; Cognitive; Cognitive Therapy; Computer software; Contracts; Cues; Decision Making; Development; Emotions; Eye; Failure; Frequencies; Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Goals; HIV; Health; Heating; Hyperphagia; Individual; Informal Social Control; Intervention; Laboratory Study; Lead; Learning; Link; Literature; Measures; Modification; Outcome; Participant; Patient Self-Report; Pattern; Population; Preventive Intervention; Process; Regulation; Research; Rewards; Risk; Risk Behaviors; Risk Reduction Behavior; Risk-Taking; Role; Safe Sex; Sex Behavior; Sexual Partners; Sexually Transmitted Diseases; Shapes; Stimulus; Techniques; Testing; Thinking; Translating; Visual; Visual attention; Work; aged; base; behavior change; computerized; condoms; directed attention; high risk; high risk sexual behavior; improved; information processing; public health relevance; relating to nervous system; safer sex; sex; sex risk; sexually active; underage drinker; young adult

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Young adults aged 18-24 who abuse alcohol are at heightened risk for contracting human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs). However, the factors and mechanisms underlying alcohol abuse and HIV/STI risk behaviors in young adults are not well understood, and most existing efforts to promote safer sex behaviors have not been tailored to this unique population. Thus, there continues to be a need for research that focuses on an improved understanding of the factors that are most likely to translate into more effective, empirically-supported interventions for HIV/STI risk behavior reduction in young adults who abuse alcohol. One such factor, and especially promising target for intervention, involves the concept of self-regulation, or the capacity to override desires, thoughts, emotions, and behavior patterns that otherwise might lead to potentially undesirable outcomes. Indeed, poor self-regulation in the "heat of the moment" has been found to lead to risky sexual decision making in laboratory studies and is generally associated with HIV/STI risk behavior. However, while some initial studies suggest an important role for these processes, to date no research has systematically tested 1) whether specific self-regulatory deficiencies contribute to HIV/STI risk behavior and 2) whether interventions that target changes in these self-regulatory mechanisms may have the potential to reduce HIV/STI risk behavior in young adults. The following hypotheses will be tested in the proposed research: 1) Attentional processes underlie failures in self-regulatory mechanisms in the context of HIV/STI risk behavior and alcohol abuse, and 2) the modification of attentional processing of cues indicative of safe vs. risky sex decrease HIV/STI risk behaviors in sexually active young drinkers. The proposed research tests these hypotheses in two ways. First, a laboratory study will be conducted to elucidate the attentional processes that have been implicated in failures to self-regulate in addictive and impulse control behaviors, but which have, to date, not been explicitly addressed in terms of their potential role in the regulation of HIV/STI risk behavior. To do so, eye-tracking software will measure visual attention to risk- related information (e.g., frequency of past condom use, # of previous sexual partners) of high and low risk hypothetical sexual partners depicted on a computerized sexual decision making task. Second, the study will examine whether an experimentally-adopted safe-sex schema - an attention-regulation strategy adapted from cognitive therapy - influences participants' sexual decision making and attention patterns to risk-related information on the task. The long-term goals of the proposed research are 1) to contribute to a promising, emerging literature on the role of cognitive processes in sexual decision making, and 2) to lay the groundwork for more empirically-based interventions for HIV/STI risk behavior reduction, particularly in individuals who abuse alcohol. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: While young adults who abuse alcohol are at increased risk for contracting human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), the mechanisms underlying sexual risk behavior are not well understood, and HIV/STI risk behavior reduction interventions do not always address mechanisms that may be crucial for eliciting behavior change. The proposed study hypothesizes that attentional processes contribute to failures to inhibit HIV/STI risk behaviors, and that modifying attention to sexual risk and reward cues can decrease sexual risk taking in sexually active young drinkers. This project has the potential to further our understanding of basic cognitive processes that underlie sexual risk behavior, as well as to provide a springboard for development of empirically-based HIV/STI risk behavior reduction interventions.

描述（由申请人提供）：18-24岁滥用酒精的年轻人感染人类免疫缺陷病毒（HIV）和其他性传播感染（STIs）的风险较高。然而，年轻人酒精滥用和艾滋病毒/性传播感染风险行为背后的因素和机制尚不清楚，大多数现有的促进安全性行为的努力都没有针对这一独特的人群。因此，仍然需要进行研究，重点是更好地了解最有可能转化为更有效、有经验支持的干预措施的因素，以减少滥用酒精的年轻人的艾滋病毒/性传播感染风险行为。其中一个因素，尤其是有希望的干预目标，涉及到自我调节的概念，或超越欲望、思想、情感和行为模式的能力，否则可能导致潜在的不良结果。事实上，在实验室研究中发现，在“最激动的时刻”缺乏自我调节会导致高风险的性决策，并且通常与艾滋病毒/性传播感染风险行为有关。然而，尽管一些初步研究表明这些过程发挥了重要作用，但迄今为止还没有研究系统地测试1)特定的自我调节缺陷是否会导致艾滋病毒/性传播感染风险行为，以及2)针对这些自我调节机制变化的干预措施是否有可能减少年轻人的艾滋病毒/性传播感染风险行为。本研究将对以下假设进行验证：1)在HIV/STI风险行为和酒精滥用的背景下，注意过程是自我调节机制失败的基础；2)在性活跃的年轻饮酒者中，安全与危险性行为提示的注意加工的改变减少了HIV/STI风险行为。拟议的研究从两个方面验证了这些假设。首先，将进行一项实验室研究，以阐明在成瘾和冲动控制行为中未能自我调节的注意力过程，但迄今为止，这些过程在调节艾滋病毒/性传播感染风险行为方面的潜在作用尚未得到明确解决。为了做到这一点，眼球追踪软件将测量视觉注意力对计算机性决策任务中描述的高风险和低风险假想性伴侣的风险相关信息（例如，过去使用安全套的频率，以前的性伴侣数量）的关注。其次，该研究将检验实验采用的安全性行为模式（一种从认知疗法中改编的注意力调节策略）是否会影响参与者的性决策和对任务中风险相关信息的注意模式。拟议研究的长期目标是：1)促进关于认知过程在性决策中的作用的有前途的新兴文献，2)为更多基于经验的干预措施奠定基础，以减少艾滋病毒/性传播感染风险行为，特别是对滥用酒精的个人。