Adolescent Conflict, Physiological Stress, and Risky Health Behaviors

描述（由申请人提供）：本研究拟运用社会互动和生物学的观点，更好地理解人际冲突（IC）与青少年生理应激、健康风险行为参与和内化症状之间的关系。尽管有大量证据表明IC是青少年的压力源，并与他们的整体适应有关，但对于IC、生理压力、健康风险行为和内化症状之间的相互关系知之甚少。本研究的首要目标是进一步了解青少年与父母、同伴和约会伙伴的IC经历如何与生理应激的日常模式、参与各种危险的健康风险行为和青少年的内化症状分别和累积联系在一起。该研究旨在(a)研究当前IC经历、既往IC经历与下丘脑-垂体-肾上腺皮质（HPA）轴活动的日模式（以皮质醇为指标）之间的关系；(b)研究IC和健康风险行为，包括寻求感觉的行为（如鲁莽驾驶）和抑制压力的行为（如饮酒）如何与HPA轴的日活动相关；(c)探索IC、HPA轴活动、健康风险行为和内化症状之间的关系，以更深入地了解如何在青少年发展的背景下整合这些构式。拟议的研究建立在一个正在进行的纵向项目上，该项目除了连续10天的前瞻性每日测量外，还提供了青春期IC的多波数据。本研究超越了母体项目，通过一系列唾液样本评估HPA活动的日模式，在10天的每日数据中有3天检测皮质醇，并在唾液收集之前立即评估IC。拟议的研究还在其他评估后6个月对广泛的健康风险行为进行评估。拟议的项目将更好地描述不同类型的IC（身体、心理和电子形式的攻击）在不同关系（父母、同伴和约会伙伴）中对男女青少年的性质和影响。关注双向效应，分析将探讨IC、健康风险行为、HPA活性和内化症状之间的加性和交互影响。分析还探讨了在生理活动中对IC反应的致敏与衰减的相互矛盾的假设。由于IC在青少年的生活中相对普遍，这里的问题是IC单独或结合各种生理活动模式是否有助于解释青少年参与危险或危害健康的行为以及青少年内化症状的发展。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The proposed study applies social-interactional and biological perspectives to better understand how interpersonal conflict (IC) relates to physiological stress, engagement in health risk behaviors, and internalizing symptoms in adolescents. Despite considerable evidence that IC is a stressor for adolescents and relates to their overall adjustment, little is known about the interrelationships among IC, physiological stress, health risk behaviors, and internalizing symptoms. The overarching goal of this study is to advance understanding of how adolescents' experiences of IC with parents, peers, and dating partners are linked separately and cumulatively with diurnal patterns of physiological stress, engagement in a variety of dangerous health risk behaviors, and adolescents' internalizing symptoms. The proposed study aims to (a) examine the relation between current experiences of IC, previous IC, and diurnal patterns of hypothalamic-pituitary- adrenocortical (HPA) axis activity as indexed by cortisol; (b) examine how IC and health risk behaviors, including both sensation-seeking behaviors (e.g., reckless driving) and stress-dampening behaviors (e.g. alcohol use), relate to diurnal HPA axis activity; and (c) explore the associations among IC, HPA axis activity, health risk behaviors, and internalizing symptoms to gain a more thorough understanding of how to integrate these constructs within the context of adolescent development. The proposed study builds on an ongoing longitudinal project that provides multiple waves of data of IC across adolescence in addition to prospective daily measurements for 10 consecutive days. This study goes beyond the parent project by assessing diurnal patterns of HPA activity through a series of saliva samples, assayed for cortisol, on 3 of the 10 days of daily data, and by assessing IC immediately preceding the saliva collections. The proposed study also provides an assessment of wide-ranging health risk behaviors 6 months following the other assessments. The proposed project will better delineate the nature and impact of different types of IC (physical, psychological, and electronic forms of aggression) in different relationships (parents, peers, and dating partners) for female and male adolescents. With attention to bi-directional effects, analyses will explore additive and interactive influences among IC, health risk behaviors, HPA activity, and internalizing symptoms. Analyses also explore competing hypotheses about sensitization versus attenuation in response to IC as manifested in physiological activity. With IC relatively commonplace in the lives of adolescents, the question here is whether IC alone or in combination with various patterns of physiological activity helps explain adolescents' engagement in dangerous or health compromising behaviors and adolescents' development of internalizing symptoms. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Health risk behaviors and internalizing symptoms, which are common among adolescents, can result in serious and sometimes fatal consequences and lead to a lower quality of life. Healthy People 2010 Health Objectives include the reduction of adolescents' health risk behaviors, such as tobacco use and unprotected sex, and increase their overall quality of life and access to mental health treatment. Understanding how interpersonal relations, in combination with biological reactions such as diurnal HPA activity, affect adolescents' engagement in risk behaviors and experience of internalizing symptoms would inform prevention and intervention practices, reducing the harm caused by these common behaviors and psychological symptoms.