Developing Health Behaviors in Middle Adolescence

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The purpose of the proposed study is to build on an ongoing study of health-risk behaviors in 4th-8th graders [R01-HD39554] by following three original cohorts(4-6th graders) through high school. Specific aims are to: 1. Compare the contextual/risk factors, protective resources and health-behaviors of adolescents (9th-12th graders) by gender, and ethnicity. 2. Explore how contextual/risk factors, protective resources, and health behaviors of adolescents change overtime. 3. Determine which set of contextual/risk factors and protective resources best predict health-promoting behaviors and health-risk behaviors in each year of middle-to-late adolescence (grades 4-12). 4. Describe adolescents' motivations for engaging in health-promoting behaviors and health-risk behaviors. A cohort-sequential design will be used to collect data from an accessible, multi-ethnic sample of 1186 adolescents and their parents residing in central Texas. Surveys consisting of valid research instruments to measure theoretical variables in a resilience model will be administered annually for four years in adolescents' homes using audio-computer-assisted survey interviewing (A-CASI) techniques. This design allows for both cross-sectional and longitudinal data analysis. Data from the ongoing study plus new data collected in the proposed study will be combined to answer the research questions and test hypotheses using general linear models, generalized linear models, and general linear mixed models (HLM). Qualitative data to meet the fourth specific aim will be collected from a random sample of 25 9th graders from each of the three cohorts and analyzed using manifest and latent content analysis. Findings will contribute to the public health by providing information from which to develop specific interventions that target multiple behaviors associated with the major morbidities and mortalities of individual in the second decade of life, particularly disadvantaged, rural, racial and ethnic minorities.