Affective influences on adolescent sexual risk behavior: Couple & family contexts

拉丁裔和非洲裔美国青少年仍然不成比例地受到与青少年性风险行为相关的负面健康后果的影响。尽管性风险行为是一种二元行为，但几乎所有的社会认知理论都强调以个体为基础的变量来解释行为。通常情况下，与个别青少年进行访谈，评估他们的关系的特点，然后这些评估被用来预测个人的性风险行为。很少有研究对青少年夫妇的两个成员进行研究，或者使用每个成员的测量来预测该二人组未来的性活动。目前R01提交的总体目标是确定一个样本的未婚，非同居的拉丁裔和非洲裔美国人的高中年龄的情侣浪漫联系的性风险行为的解释模型。此外，本研究还将对青少年夫妇的父母进行研究。本研究将认知、情绪和情绪调节理论以及父母监控理论应用于青少年夫妻性风险行为的研究。这项研究的重点是11年级和12年级的拉丁裔和非洲裔美国青少年及其父母。青少年和他们的父母将从纽约州纽约市布朗克斯区的公立高中招募，并将进行前瞻性随访。该研究在几个方面具有创新性。首先，它适当地将青少年性活动置于青少年浪漫关系和家庭动态的更广泛背景下。第二，我们将研究一对青少年夫妇的双方成员，并前瞻性地预测这对夫妇的性行为。大多数关于青少年性行为的研究都是针对青少年个体进行的。本研究还将创新的理论模型应用于研究夫妻和家庭对青少年性风险行为的影响。与以前的研究相比，这项研究承认情绪和情绪调节的重要性，作为青少年性冒险的潜在重要决定因素。本研究将测试四个有趣的夫妻成员影响模型，分析个人成员对夫妻性活动的贡献，并将研究重要的夫妻关系变量的调节作用。此外，该研究还将测试一种基于发展科学的父母监控三过程理论。本研究为青少年危险性行为的研究提供了一个系统的、有理论基础的、全面的研究方法。通过以新颖的方式阐明性行为发生的情感、夫妻和家庭背景，这项研究将导致更丰富、更相关的干预措施的发展，以预防非洲裔美国人和拉丁裔青年的青少年性风险行为。 公共卫生相关性：非洲裔美国人和拉丁美洲青年受到与青少年性行为相关的负面健康后果的影响不成比例。本研究将对市中心的非洲裔美国人和拉丁裔高中适龄青年，他们的父母和他们的浪漫伴侣进行创新研究，以了解家庭和夫妇环境如何影响青少年的性风险行为。这些知识可以用来为设计以家长和学校为基础的干预措施提供信息，以解决青少年的性风险行为。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Latino and African American adolescents remain disproportionately affected by the negative health consequences associated with adolescent sexual risk behavior. Despite the fact that sexual risk behavior is a dyadic behavior, almost all of the social-cognitive theories emphasize individual-based variables to explain behavior. Typically, interviews are conducted with individual adolescents, assessments are made of their characterizations of relationships, and then these assessments are used to predict the individual's sexual risk behavior. Little research has studied both members of an adolescent couple or has used measures from each member to predict future sexual activity of that dyad. The overall aim of the present R01 submission is to identify explanatory models of couple sexual risk behavior among a sample of unmarried, non co-habiting Latino and African American high school-aged dyads that are romantically linked. In addition, the present research also will study the parents of adolescent couples. In doing so, the present research will apply theories of cognition, emotion and emotion regulation, and a new theory of parental monitoring to the study of adolescent sexual risk behavior among couples. The study is focused on Latino and African American adolescents in grades 11 and 12 and their parents. Adolescents and their parents will be recruited from public high schools in the Bronx borough of New York, NY, and will be prospectively followed. The research is innovative in several respects. First, it appropriately contextualizes adolescent sexual activity in the broader contexts of adolescent romantic relationships and family dynamics. Second, we will study both members of an adolescent couple and will forecast, prospectively, the sexual behavior of that couple. Most research on adolescent sexual behavior is conducted with individual adolescents. The study also will apply innovative theoretical models to the study of couple and family influences on youth sexual risk behavior. In contrast to previous research, the study acknowledges the importance of emotions and emotion regulation as potentially important determinants of adolescent sexual risk taking. The study will test four intriguing models of couple member influence when analyzing the contribution of characteristics that individual members bring to couple sexual activity, and will examine the moderating effects of important couple relationship variables. In addition, the research will test a novel three-process theory of parental monitoring that is grounded in developmental science. The study represents a systematic, theory-based and comprehensive approach to the study of adolescent sexual risk behavior. By elucidating, in novel ways, the emotional, couple and family contexts within which sexual behavior occurs, the study will lead to the development of richer, more relevant interventions to prevent adolescent sexual risk behavior among African American and Latino youth. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: African American and Latino youth are disproportionately affected by the negative health consequences associated with adolescent sexual behavior. The present study will conduct innovative research with inner-city African American and Latino high school-aged youth, their parents and their romantic partners to understand how family and couple contexts affect adolescent sexual risk behavior. This knowledge can then be used to inform the design of parent-and school-based interventions to address youth sexual risk behavior.