Reducing Alcohol & Risks Among Young Females

描述(由申请人提供)：教育发展中心公司将进行一项干预研究，以确定和解决早期饮酒和危险行为在城市非裔美国人和拉丁裔青少年女性人群中的综合影响，这些女性是艾滋病毒、艾滋病和其他感染的高危人群。调查小组过去的研究表明，在我们的目标人群中，近10%的女性在7年级时有风险，到10年级春季时超过一半。尽管酒精使用与国家数据更具可比性，但早期饮酒和危险行为的结合令人担忧，但现有的干预措施并未充分解决这一问题。这项随机实验将测试一种理论上派生的、基于经验的“选择性”干预措施，该干预措施专门针对高危的年轻青春期女性。这一干预建立在一个影响青少年的有希望的战略之上：家长教育。父母监督(P-PM)、家庭规则制定(HR-PM)和沟通(C-PM)是影响青少年危险行为的三种父母养育机制(PM)。在与纽约市公立学校和一个社区咨询委员会的持续合作中，目标是：(1)开发一套三张音频CD，在6个月的时间里，每隔一段时间向青春期女儿的父母提供一套关于酒精预防以及早期饮酒和冒险之间的联系的音频CD；(2)招募500名父母和他们的8年级女儿，并随机将家庭分配到三种情况之一：(1)以防止酒精使用为重点的音频-CD干预；(2)注意力控制的情况；或(3)非注意力控制的情况；(3)对父母进行基线电话调查，以评估父母监督(P-PM)、家庭规则(HR-PM)、亲子沟通(C-PM)和女儿对酒精等行为的看法；(4)对处于青春期的女儿进行基线调查，以评估她们对酒精、P-PM、HR-PM和C-PM的态度和行为；(5)对父母进行为期3个月的干预后电话调查，测试音频-CD干预在改善P-PM、HR-PM和C-PM方面的效果；(6)对女儿进行为期3个月的干预后调查，测试音频-CD干预在培养与减少酒精和冒险相关的态度和行为方面的有效性；(7)检验从基线到3个月随访女儿态度和行为的变化是否可以通过P-PM、HR-PM和C-PM的变化来解释，以及这三种父母教养机制是否在实验条件和女儿结果之间起中介作用。这项研究有可能提高对早期酒精和危险行为之间联系的理解，并为应对这些风险提供一种经过验证的、有选择性的、以女性为重点的干预措施。其目标是让年轻女性走上一条保护自己健康的道路，并减轻饮酒和艾滋病毒疾病问题给非洲裔美国人和拉丁裔社区带来的负担。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Education Development Center, Inc. will conduct an intervention study to characterize and address the combined effect of early alcohol use and risky behavior within a population of urban African American and Latina adolescent females who are at high risk for HIV, AIDS, and other infections. Past research by the investigative team has documented that nearly 10% of females in our target population are at risk in 7thgrade and more than half by spring of 10th grade. Although alcohol use is more comparable with national figures, the combination of early alcohol and risky behavior is troubling, yet under-addressed by existing interventions. This randomized experiment will test a theoretically-derived and empirically-grounded "selective" intervention that specifically targets high-risk young adolescent females. The intervention builds upon a promising strategy for influencing adolescents: parent education. Three parenting mechanisms (PM) shown to influence adolescent risk behavior are targeted: parental monitoring (P-PM), household rule setting (HR-PM), and communication (C-PM). In continuing collaboration with New York City public schools and a community advisory board, the aims are to: (1) Develop a set of three audio-cds to be delivered at intervals over a 6-month period to parents of young adolescent daughters that address alcohol prevention and the link between early alcohol use and risk taking; (2) Enroll 500 parents and their 8th grade daughters and randomly assign families to one of three conditions: (1) an audio-cd intervention focused on prevention of alcohol use; (2) an attention-controlled condition; or (3) a non-attention controlled condition; (3) Conduct a baseline telephone survey of parents to assess parental monitoring (P-PM), household rules (HR-PM), parent-child communication (C-PM) and perceptions of daughters' alcohol and other behaviors; (4) Conduct a baseline survey of adolescent daughters to assess their attitudes and behaviors about alcohol, P-PM, HR-PM, and C-PM; (5) Conduct a 3-month post-intervention telephone survey of parents and test the efficacy of the audio-cd intervention in improving P-PM, HR-PM, and C-PM; (6) Conduct a 3-month post-intervention survey of daughters and test the efficacy of the audio-cd intervention in fostering attitudes and behaviors related to reduced alcohol and risk taking; (7) Examine whether changes from baseline to 3 month follow up in daughters' attitudes and behaviors are explained by changes in P-PM, HR-PM, and C-PM, and whether these three parenting mechanism mediate the relationship between experimental condition and daughters' outcomes. The study has the potential to improve understanding of the link between early alcohol and risky behavior and to provide a proven, selective, female-focused intervention for addressing these risks. The goal is to set young women on a course that protects their health and reduces the burden that problem drinking and HIV disease is taking on African American and Latino communities.