Youth Violence Exposure: A National Longitudinal Study

说明(由申请人提供)：该项目的总体目标是通过对12-17岁青少年的新的全国家庭概率样本进行三波纵向调查，获得1995年全国青少年调查(NSA)的10年更新和延长。最初的国家安全局是通过电话对4023名年龄在12岁到17岁之间的男女青少年进行的全国家庭概率抽样调查。拟议的项目所使用的方法是特意模仿最初的国家安全局的。拟议的项目将包括对4 000名12至17岁的新队列进行基线调查，采用与国家安全局原来相同的抽样和面谈程序。拟议的项目还将包括在基线评估后一年和两年对青少年参与者进行的两次额外评估。与最初的国家安全局的情况一样，结构化访谈将用于衡量在家庭、学校和社区环境中发生的目击和直接暴力受害(例如，性侵犯、身体攻击和身体虐待惩罚)的广泛暴露。将测量几种类型的精神健康问题，包括创伤后应激障碍、严重抑郁、自杀念头和企图、药物使用和滥用以及犯罪。这项研究还将从父母和青少年那里获得有关学习成绩的信息。拟议的项目将提供关于过去十年美国青年在暴力暴露、药物使用和相关适应问题方面的变化的宝贵比较。虽然是以美国国家安全局为蓝本，但拟议的项目在几个重要方面与最初的项目有所不同。首先，拟议研究中对暴力暴露的评估更广泛和更具体；具体而言，将扩大对身体虐待惩罚的评估，并将更全面地关注学校、家庭和社区暴力事件，以便更多地描述青少年在这些重要环境中暴露于暴力的情况。其次，评估结果的范围将多样化，超越精神健康、药物滥用和犯罪，包括学习成绩，儿童适应的重要发展标志，以及危险的性行为。第三，建议的调查方法是纵向的。因此，拟议项目的具体目标是：1)获得青少年在各种环境(学校、家庭、社区)中(直接和目击)接触暴力的流行率和描述性数据，包括性侵犯、身体攻击、身体虐待惩罚、家庭暴力、社区暴力和校园暴力；2)确定在1995-2005年期间，在具有全国代表性的12-17岁青少年样本中，在接触暴力、心理健康问题和一系列不良社会和心理健康后果的风险或保护因素方面是否发生了变化；3)研究暴露于暴力、精神健康和药物使用及虐待问题的发展、危险性行为、犯罪和学业成绩变化的纵向轨迹；4)检验以下假设：不良家庭环境与犯罪和学业不良结果之间的关系在很大程度上是通过暴露于暴力和/或与暴力有关的心理健康问题而调节的；以及5)测试上述关系受性别、种族和民族的影响的程度。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The overall objective of this project is to obtain a 10-year update and extension of the 1995 National Survey of Adolescents (NSA) by conducting a three wave, longitudinal survey of a new national household probability sample of 12-17 year-old adolescents. The original NSA was conducted via telephone with a national household probability sample of 4,023 male and female adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17. The methods to be used for the proposed project are deliberately modeled after the original NSA. The proposed project will involve a baseline survey of a new cohort of 4,000 12-17 year-olds using identical sample selection and interview procedures as that in the original NSA. The proposed project will also include two additional assessments of adolescent participants to be conducted one and two years after the baseline assessment. As was the case with the original NSA, a structured interview will be used to measure a broad range of exposure to witnessed and direct violence victimization (e.g., sexual assault, physical assault, and physically abusive punishment) occurring in family, school, and community settings. Several types of mental health problems will be measured, including PTSD, major depression, suicide ideation and attempts, substance use and abuse, and delinquency. The study will also obtain information from parents as well as adolescents regarding academic performance. The proposed project will provide invaluable comparisons about changes over the past decade in violence exposure, substance use, and related adjustment issues among American youth. Although modeled after the NSA, the proposed project departs from the original in several important respects. First, the assessment of violence exposure in the proposed study is broader and more specific; specifically, assessment of physically abusive punishment will be expanded, and there will be a more comprehensive focus on episodes of school, domestic, and community violence to permit greater description of adolescents' exposure to violence in each of these important settings. Second, the range of outcomes assessed will be diversified beyond mental health, substance abuse, and delinquency to include academic performance, an important developmental marker of child adjustment, as well as risky sexual behaviors. Third, the proposed survey methodology is longitudinal. Thus, specific aims of the proposed project are: 1)To obtain prevalence rates and descriptive data regarding adolescents' exposure to violence (both direct and witnessed) across a range of settings (school, home, community), including sexual assault, physical assault, physically abusive punishment, domestic violence, community violence and school violence; 2) To determine whether there have been changes among a nationally representative sample of 12-17 year olds over the 1995-2005 period with respect to the prevalence of exposure to violence, mental health problems, and risk or protective factors for a range of adverse social and mental health outcomes given exposure to violence; 3) To examine the longitudinal trajectory of exposure to violence, development of mental health and substance use and abuse problems, risky sexual behaviors, delinquency and changes in academic performance; 4) To test the hypothesis that the relationship between adverse family environment and the outcomes of delinquency and poor academic performance are substantially mediated by exposure to violence and/or violence-related mental health problems; and 5)To test the extent to which the relationships described above are moderated by gender, race, and ethnicity.