Substance Use & Girls: Stress, Hormones & Puberty

描述(申请人提供)：虽然在小学早期，女孩的香烟、酒精和大麻的使用率低于男孩，但女孩的药物使用流行率在8年级时迅速赶上并超过男孩。这项拟议的研究是一项初步研究的试点，该研究调查了与女孩在青春期早期开始和升级使用物质有关的过程，重点关注三个领域：应激事件、青春期成熟和时机以及荷尔蒙影响。在指导初级研究的一般模型中，这些领域与女孩的早期物质使用有关，通过日常情感、攻击性、抑郁和与物质使用同伴的联系。这项研究的具体目的是：(1)考察对5年级和8年级的女孩及其母亲进行密集的多方法评估的可行性，评估女孩在整个月经周期的生活压力、情绪反应、青春期成熟和激素。(2)检验每日和每周情绪反应测量的可变性、可靠性和有效性，以每日情感评级、与吸毒同伴的联系和从属应对为衡量标准，并检查为获得这些变量和荷尔蒙水平的足够样本所需的每日和每周数据的数量和时间。我们还将评估我们的一些基于问卷的测量的心理测量学特性，特别是五年级的样本。(3)获得以下影响大小的估计：(A)作为年级(5比8)和青春期时间(早与准时/晚)的函数的慢性和间歇性应激事件、激素水平和物质使用的前体之间的参与者之间的双变量关系；以及这些变量和8年级学生早期使用药物之间的关系；以及(B)作为年级和青春期时间的函数的激素水平、情绪反应、从属应对和与使用药物的同伴的关系之间的参与者之间的双变量关系。为了达到这些目标，我们将评估80名女孩，5年级和8年级各40名，每个年级20名早熟儿童，使用多种方法，包括母亲和女孩填写的问卷，评估慢性和间歇性压力的生活压力访谈，以及由女护士评估女孩的身体成熟程度。在至少四周的时间里，我们将使用电子个人数据助理(PDA)每周测量雌二醇、睾酮、黄体酮和皮质醇，以及瞬时和日终评估。所有评估都将计时到女孩的月经周期，不来月经的女孩的时间与来月经的女孩的时间一致。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): While girls' use of cigarettes, alcohol and marijuana is less than that of boys in the early elementary years, the prevalence of girls' substance use quickly catches up to and surpasses that of boys by 8th grade. The proposed study is a pilot for a primary study investigating the processes related to the initiation and escalation of substance use among girls in early adolescence focusing on three domains, stressful events, pubertal maturation and timing, and hormonal influences. In the general model guiding the primary study, these domains are related to early substance use among girls through daily affect, aggression, depression, and affiliation with substance using peers. The specific aims of this study are: (1) to examine the feasibility of an intensive multi-method assessment conducted with 5th and 8th grade girls and their mothers assessing girls' life stress, emotional responses, pubertal maturation and hormones across the menstrual cycle. (2) To examine the variability, reliability and validity of daily and weekly measures of emotional responses, as measured by daily affect ratings, association with substance-using peers, and affiliative coping, for 5th and 8th grade girls and to examine the amount and timing of daily and weekly data required to obtain adequate samples of these variables and hormonal levels. We will also assess the psychometric properties of some of our questionnaire-based measures, with a particular focus on the 5th grade sample. (3) To obtain estimates of effect sizes for: (a) between participant bivariate relations among chronic and episodic stressful events, hormonal levels, and precursors to substance use as a function of grade (5 vs. 8th) and pubertal timing (early vs. on-time/late); and between these variables and early substance use for 8th graders; and (b) within participant bivariate relations between hormonal levels, emotional responses, affiliative coping, and affiliation with substance-using peers, as a function of grade and pubertal timing. To address these aims, we will assess 80 girls, 40 in both the 5th and 8th grade, with 20 early maturers in each grade using multiple methods, including questionnaires completed by both mothers and girls, a Life Stress Interview to assess chronic and episodic stress, and an assessment of the girls' physical maturation by a female nurse. For a minimum of four weeks, we will obtain weekly measures of estradiol, testosterone, progesterone and cortisol, as well as momentary and end of day assessments using an Electronic Personal Data Assistant (PDA). All assessments will be timed to menstruating girls' menstrual cycle, with timing of non-menstruating girls yoked to that of menstruating girls.