Research Supplement to Promote Diversity in Adolescent HIV Prevention Research

职业目标：我致力于成为一名在心理学和公共卫生交叉领域工作的研究科学家。我的目标是为基础社会科学和预防项目做出贡献，以改善青少年的性健康，减少性传播疾病（std）的发病率，包括艾滋病毒/艾滋病。职业发展：这个独立之路奖将提高我的方法和统计技能，并为我提供从研究导致艾滋病毒/性病传播的危险性行为预测因素到设计和实施有效的青少年艾滋病毒/性病预防项目的过渡所需的具体培训。在辅导培训阶段，我的目标是：1)掌握开展校本性健康研究的方法学策略；2)熟练掌握多波纵波数据分析所需的高级统计知识；3)获得必要的技能，设计和实施有效的性健康干预；4)培养技能、专业知识和试点数据，帮助我从一名受指导的博士后成功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人口的25%，然而他们却感染了50%的性病。这导致这一群体每年出现900多万性病病例和8300例新诊断的艾滋病毒病例，其中少女的感染风险高于男孩。当前项目的目标是更全面地了解性交流的方式，定义为讨论性健康话题的能力，如避孕套的使用，艾滋病毒/性病和禁欲，可以减少青少年无保护的性行为。然后，利用这种最新的认识，我将把性沟通技巧培训纳入一个创新的、基于计算机的青春期女孩艾滋病毒/性病预防项目。该项目的目标将通过以下三个具体目标来实现：1)长期调查青少年的性交流和安全套使用情况；2)开发一种互动式、基于计算机的干预措施，以提高青春期女孩的性沟通技巧；3)通过随机对照试验评估性交流干预的可行性和初步效果。导师：来自北卡罗来纳大学教堂山分校的一个非常有成就的多学科专家团队将在这个奖项的头两年指导我，并在我开始独立职业生涯时提供持续的指导和支持。这个指导小组包括两位主要导师：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），以及一个杰出的科学咨询委员会：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）。未来发展方向：本项目所获得的技能和丰富的初步数据将直接支持未来的R01申请，以开展性交流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.