Investigating Adverse Effects of Adolescent Group Interventions

描述(由申请者提供)：拟议的项目旨在检查团体干预对青少年外化行为的不利影响。团体干预是青少年行为问题最经济、最方便、最常见的解决方案之一，对于我们的社会来说，这是一个主要的两难境地，因为我们的社会转介到心理健康诊所的人数最多。项目评估研究的结果已经开始表明，这些群体出人意料地增加了他们原本打算减少或防止的外化行为。然而，研究尚未证实这些意想不到的发现是否代表了对青少年参与者有意义的、显著的和持久的不利影响，而不是方法论驱动的经验性人工制品。基于强有力的研究设计和纵向数据的进一步研究是必要的，以做出这一重要区分。该项目整合了临床、发育和定量方法，以调查先前发现的青少年群体干预的不良影响。目前的研究将从一项纵向的、多地点的随机对照试验中提取数据，该试验针对的是通往高中/普恩特斯的桥梁 La Secundéria计划，这是一个具有文化能力的多组成部分预防计划，旨在降低中学过渡期间的风险，已在一系列成果中显示出积极的效果。数据是在7年级开始收集的，在7年级、8年级、9年级和12年级结束时从主要是低收入的墨西哥裔美国青少年及其母亲的样本中收集的跟踪数据。这些数据将使我们有机会检查干预对长期结果的影响，青春期外化行为的轨迹，以及观察到的影响的潜在中介因素，每一个都提供了关于青少年外化问题发展和预防的关键和独特的信息。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The proposed project seeks to examine adverse effects of group interventions on adolescents' externalizing behavior. Group interventions represent one of the most economical, convenient, and common solution to adolescent behavior problems, a major dilemma for our society that accounts for the greatest number of referrals to mental health clinics. Findings from program evaluation studies have begun to suggest that these groups unexpectedly increase the externalizing behaviors that they were designed to reduce or prevent. However, research has yet to verify whether these unexpected findings represent a meaningful, significant, and lasting adverse effect on adolescent participants rather than a methodologically-driven empirical artifact. Further research based on a strong research design and longitudinal data is necessary to make this important distinction. This project integrates clinical, developmental, and quantitative approaches to investigate a previously discovered adverse effect of an adolescent group intervention. The current study will draw data from a longitudinal, multi-site randomized controlled trial of the Bridges to High School / Puentes a La Secund¿ria Program, a culturally competent, multicomponent prevention program designed to reduce risk during the middle school transition, which has demonstrated positive effects across an array of outcomes. Data were collected at the beginning of 7th grade, with follow-up data collected at the end of the 7th,8th, 9th, and 12th grade from a sample of primarily low-income Mexican American adolescents and their mothers. These data will allow the opportunity to examine intervention effects on long-term outcomes, trajectories of externalizing behaviors across adolescence, and potential mediators of observed effects, each of which provide critical and unique information on the development and prevention of externalizing problems among adolescents.