Acculturation and Drug Use in Family and Peer Contexts

描述（由申请人提供）：在生活在多元文化社会背景下的青少年中，对美国文化的文化适应已被确定为药物使用的风险因素。然而，文化适应过程的复杂性及其对健康风险行为的影响仍然只是部分了解。青少年文化适应的多种模式是可能的，包括同化、分离、边缘化和一些双文化行为模式，如交替、融合和整合。先前关于青少年文化适应及其后果的研究没有考虑到文化适应和种族认同形成的家庭和同伴环境。了解文化适应的社会背景很重要，因为青少年物质使用的大多数社会心理风险因素涉及同伴和家庭影响。在移民家庭中，多代家庭成员都在适应文化，通常以不同的速度和模式适应。亲子文化适应模式的差异可能会影响父母的权威和亲子沟通，进而影响青少年对同伴和活动的选择，并最终影响青少年对物质使用的参与。本研究将探讨家庭背景下青少年文化适应模式、亲子文化适应模式对家庭功能的影响、家庭功能对同伴社会网络的影响以及社会网络对青少年物质使用的影响。这项研究将包括一年的定性和试点研究，然后是三年的纵向研究。在三年的时间里，南加州多种族和非多种族高中的高中生（N=2000）和他们的父母将完成关于他们的文化适应模式和家庭功能的问卷调查。社会网络分析将用于描述青少年社会网络的结构和社会网络成员中物质使用的流行程度。来自学生和家长的个人数据将与美国人口普查数据相匹配，以获得有关社区种族构成的信息。将进行分析，以了解多代人的文化适应模式影响青少年药物使用风险的社会心理机制，以及社会网络和种族背景对这些过程的作用。结果将提供重要的信息，可用于制定更有效的药物使用预防方案，以适应多元文化社会的家庭中不同种族的青少年。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Among adolescents living in culturally diverse social contexts, acculturation to the United States culture has been identified as a risk factor for substance use. However, the complexities of acculturation processes and their influences on health risk behaviors remain only partially understood. Multiple patterns of adolescent acculturation are possible, including Assimilation, Separation, Marginalization, and several bicultural patterns of behavior such as Alternation, Fusion, and Integration. Previous studies of adolescent acculturation and its consequences have not considered the family and peer contexts in which acculturation and ethnic identity formation occur. Understanding the social contexts of acculturation is important because most psychosocial risk factors for adolescent substance use involve peer and family influences. In immigrant families, multiple generations of family members are acculturating, typically at differing rates and with different patterns. Parent child discrepancies in acculturation patterns might affect parental authority and parent-child communication, which in turn might influence the adolescents' selection of peers and activities and ultimately the adolescents' involvement in substance use. This study will examine adolescent acculturation patterns in the family context, the effects of parent-child acculturation patterns on family functioning, the effects of family functioning on peer social networks, and the effects of social networks on adolescent substance use. The study will consist of a year of qualitative and pilot research, followed by a three-year longitudinal study. Over a three-year period, high school students in ethnically diverse and non-diverse high schools in Southern California (N=2000) and their parents will complete questionnaires about their acculturation patterns and family functioning. Social network analysis will be used to describe the structure of the adolescents' social networks and the prevalence of substance use among social network members. The individual-level data from students and parents will be matched with U.S. Census data to obtain information about the ethnic composition of the neighborhood. Analyses will be conducted to understand the psychosocial mechanisms by which multigenerational acculturation patterns influence the risk of adolescent substance use, and the role of the social network and ethnic context on those processes. The results will provide important information that can be used to develop more effective substance use prevention programs for ethnically diverse adolescents in acculturating families in a multicultural society.