Reducing HIV Risk Among Adolescents

职位描述(申请人提供)：职业目标：我致力于从事心理学和公共卫生交叉点的研究科学家的职业。我的目标是为基础社会科学和预防项目做出贡献，改善青春期的性健康，减少包括艾滋病毒/艾滋病在内的性传播疾病(STDS)的发生率。职业发展：这一独立之路奖将增强我的方法和统计技能，并提供我所需的具体培训，使我从研究导致艾滋病毒/性传播疾病传播的危险性行为的预测因素过渡到为青少年设计和实施有效的艾滋病毒/性传播疾病预防计划。在指导培训阶段，我的目标是：1)掌握以学校为基础的性健康研究的方法论策略；2)熟练掌握分析多波纵向数据所需的高级统计学；3)获得设计和实施有效的性健康干预所需的技能；4)发展技能、专业知识和试点数据，以促进我成功地从一名受指导的博士后研究员转变为一名完全独立的研究科学家。研究项目：在美国，15-24岁的年轻人占有性经验的人口的25%，但他们感染了整整50%的性传播疾病。这导致这一群体每年有900多万性传播疾病和8,300例新诊断的艾滋病毒病例，少女比男孩感染的风险更大。当前项目的目标是更全面地了解性交流，即能够讨论性健康话题，如避孕套的使用、艾滋病毒/性传播疾病和禁欲，可以减少青少年无保护措施的性行为。然后，利用这一最新的理解，我将把性交流技能培训纳入一个创新的、基于计算机的青春期女孩艾滋病毒/性传播疾病预防计划。项目目标将通过以下三个具体目标来实现：1)随着时间的推移检查青春期的性交流和避孕套的使用情况；2)开发一种基于计算机的互动干预措施，以提高青春期女孩的性交流技能；3)在随机对照试验中评估性交流干预的可行性和初步效果。指导：来自北卡罗来纳大学教堂山分校的一个高度成功的多学科专家团队将在这个奖项的头两年指导我，并在我开始我的独立职业生涯时提供持续的指导和支持。这个指导团队包括两位主要导师：米奇·普林斯坦博士(心理学系)和卡罗尔·戈林博士(艾滋病研究中心公共卫生学院)，以及一位杰出的科学顾问委员会：丹尼尔·鲍尔博士(心理学系)、赛斯·诺尔博士(新闻与大众传播学院)和简·布朗博士(新闻与大众传播学院)。未来方向：从这项提案中获得的技能和丰富的初步数据将直接支持未来的R01申请，以执行性沟通干预的全面临床试验。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Career Goal: I am committed to a career as a research scientist working at the intersection of psychology and public health. My goal is to contribute to both basic social science and prevention programs that improve adolescent sexual health and reduce the incidence of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), including HIV/AIDS. Career Development: This Pathway to Independence Award will enhance my methodological and statistical skills and provide the specific training that I need to transition from conducting research on the predictors of risky sexual behaviors that lead to HIV/STD transmission to designing and implementing effective HIV/STD prevention programs for adolescents. During the mentored training phase, my goals are to: 1) master methodological strategies for conducting school-based sexual health research; 2) gain proficiency in the advanced statistics needed to analyze multi-wave longitudinal data; 3) gain the skills necessary to design and implement an effective sexual health intervention; and 4) develop the skills, expertise, and pilot data to facilitate my successful transition from a mentored postdoctoral fellow into a fully independent research scientist. Research Project: In the U.S., youth between the ages of 15-24 years represent 25% of the sexually experienced population, yet they acquire a full 50% of all STDs. This results in over 9 million STDs and 8,300 newly diagnosed cases of HIV each year in this group, with teen girls at greater risk of infection than boys. The goal of the current project is t gain a more comprehensive understanding of the way that sexual communication, defined as the ability to discuss sexual health topics, such as condom use, HIV/STDs, and abstinence, may reduce acts of unprotected sex among teens. Then, using this updated understanding, I will incorporate sexual communication skills training into an innovative, computer-based HIV/STD prevention program for adolescent girls. The project objectives will be achieved through the following three Specific Aims: 1) examine adolescent sexual communication and condom use over time; 2) develop an interactive, computer-based intervention to increase adolescent girls' sexual communication skills; and 3) assess the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of the sexual communication intervention in a randomized controlled trial. Mentorship: A highly accomplished, multidisciplinary team of experts from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will mentor me in the initial two years of this award and provide ongoing guidance and support as I launch my independent career. This mentoring team includes two primary mentors: Dr. Mitch Prinstein (Department of Psychology) and Dr. Carol Golin (School of Public Health, Center for AIDS Research), and an outstanding scientific advisory committee: Dr. Daniel Bauer (Department of Psychology), Dr. Seth Noar (School of Journalism and Mass Communication), and Dr. Jane Brown (School of Journalism and Mass Communication). Future Directions: The skills achieved and the rich preliminary data from this proposal will directly support a future R01 application to conduct a full clinical trial of the sexual communication intervention.