Collaborative Research: Vulnerable Transitions and Cumulative Embodied Stress Among Teens in High-Risk, High Stakes Pastoralism

童年和成年之间的岁月被普遍认为是人类正常发展的一个阶段。但是，尽管科学家们知道，不同的文化和社会对青春期的理解和体验是不同的，但大多数关于青少年的研究都发生在西方社会。因此，关于人类发展的这一重要时期，仍有许多未知之处。出于这个原因，人类学家最近将更多的注意力投向了跨文化研究青少年。这个特别的奖项颁给了一个研究团队，他们提出了一个关于青春期的特别重要和及时的问题：在暴力环境中长大会产生什么影响？不幸的是，暴力是世界各地许多青少年日常现实的一部分，包括美国的许多青少年。在非西方背景下考察暴力对青春期的影响，将使社会科学家和政策制定者能够区分地方性和文化性的影响和普遍的影响，这对于制定有效的战略，缓冲暴力对青少年的影响至关重要，无论他们生活在哪里。研究小组由文化人类学家比林达·S·斯特雷特博士(西密歇根大学)和生物人类学家艾薇·L·派克博士(亚利桑那大学)组成。这项研究将在东非一个冲突频发的牧区进行，研究人员此前在那里收集了牧民社区215户家庭的纵向比较数据，这些家庭的暴力暴露情况各不相同。研究人员将以这一数据为基础，对660名年轻人进行样本调查。他们将(1)检查青春期女孩和男孩(10-19岁)在定居点和牧场、牛群营地和其他活动地点之间的日常活动；(2)通过健身跟踪设备和活动回忆结合使用人体测量和饮食回忆进行营养评估来监测能量消耗；(3)通过多种生物标记物、经过验证的评估工具和密集的民族志访谈来衡量青少年的心理社会压力；以及(4)根据青春期男孩和女孩不同的日常经历，引出他们的选择、解释和情绪。

The years between childhood and adulthood are universally recognized as a stage in normal human development. But despite the fact that scientists know that adolescence is understood and experienced differently in different cultures and societies, most studies of adolescents have taken place in Western societies. Therefore, much remains unknown about this significant period of human development. For this reason, anthropologists have recently directed increased attention to studying adolescents cross-culturally. This particular award is to a research team who ask a particularly important and timely question about the adolescent years: what are the effects of growing up in a violent environment? Unfortunately, violence is part of the daily reality for many adolescents around the world, including many in the United States. Examining the effects of violence on the adolescent years in a non-Western context will allow social scientists and policy makers to differentiate between effects that are local and cultural, and those that are universal, which is essential for developing effective strategies for buffering the effects of violence on adolescents wherever they might live. The research team is comprised of cultural anthropologist Dr. Bilinda S. Straight (Western Michigan University) and biological anthropologist Dr. Ivy L. Pike (University of Arizona). The research will be carried out in a conflict-ridden pastoralist zone of East Africa where the researchers have previously collected comparative, longitudinal data on 215 households in pastoralist communities that vary by their exposure to violence. The researchers will build on that data with a sample of 660 young people. They will (1) examine the daily movements of adolescent girls and boys (ages 10-19) between settlement and pasture, cattle camp, and other activity sites; (2) monitor energy expenditure with fitness tracking devices and activity recall combined with nutritional assessments using anthropometry and dietary recall; (3) measure adolescent psychosocial stress through multiple bio-markers, validated assessment instruments, and intensive ethnographic interviews; and (4) elicit the choices, explanations, and emotions of adolescent boys and girls in the context of their varied daily experiences.