Behavioral clustering in adolescents with STDs

描述（由申请人提供）：虽然对青少年中性传播疾病的风险有很好的描述，但对他们的性行为、吸毒和社交网络的了解还不够充分。此外，行为和社会心理因素在性传播疾病和血源性感染（BBIs）传播中的作用主要被认为是在个体水平上，很少被认为是群体现象。在这项研究中，我们将探讨年轻人的网络是否表现出与性传播疾病和BBIs感染有关的行为和社会心理特征的分类混合。我们的具体目标是（1.1）比较受感染和未受感染男孩和女孩的自我中心网络在具体行为、社会心理特征和关联类型方面的差异；（1.2）比较通过加入具有共同联系的指数受访者创建的社会图（连接子图）；（1.3）比较青春期男孩和青春期女孩自我中心网络和社会图随时间的变化；（1.4）评估行为/社会心理因素与网络因素在性传播疾病/ bbi感染中的相对重要性；（2.0）研究青少年群体中个人行为和社会心理因素的分类或非分类混合在多大程度上与网络结构和性传播疾病/ bbi的发生有关。我们建议招募20名15岁的男孩和20名女孩（感染和未感染各10名），在3年期间对他们进行6次性传播疾病/ bbi访谈和测试，并在每一次访谈中根据固定的链式设计进行接触（每次访谈时总N=440）。由此产生的集群和分组将为检验与具体目标有关的假设提供基础，其中主要是网络结构将对感染概率产生独立影响，并且“感染集群”（即指数应答者被感染的集群）在行为和社会心理变量方面将比未感染的集群表现出更大程度的分类混合。为此，我们将利用这一事实，即类内相关系数和由此衍生的设计效应衡量类内同质性，因此是集群内分类混合的直接衡量标准。对这种现象的论证将有助于设计将网络信息纳入其方案的干预措施。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Though the risk for STDs among adolescents is well described, knowledge of their sexual, drug-using and social networks is less well developed. In addition, the role of behavioral and psychosocial factors in transmission of STDs and blood borne infections (BBIs) has been considered primarily on the individual level, and rarely as group phenomena. In this study, we will explore whether the networks of young persons demonstrate assortative mixing with regard to behaviors and psychosocial characteristics as a function of infection with STDs and BBIs. Our specific aims are (1.1) to compare the egocentric networks of infected and non-infected boys and girls with regard to specific behaviors, psychosocial characteristics, and types of associations; (1.2) to compare the sociograms (connected subgraphs) created by joining index respondents who have ties in common; (1.3) to compare the changes in egocentric networks and sociograms among adolescent boys and adolescent girls over time; (1.4) to estimate the relative importance of behavioral/psychosocial factors vs. network factors in the acquisition of STDs/BBIs; and (2.0) to examine the extent to which assortative or disassortative mixing with regard to personal behaviors and psychosocial factors in groupings of adolescents is associated with network structure and with the occurrence of STDs/BBIs. We propose enrolling 20 boys and 20 girls, age 15 years (10 each infected and uninfected), interviewing and testing them for STDs/BBIs six times over a 3 year period, and, at every other interview, eliciting contacts according to a fixed chain link design (total N=440 at every other interview). The resulting clusters and groupings will provide the basis for testing hypotheses that relate to the specific aims, primary among which are that network structure will exert an independent influence on the probability of infection, and that "infected clusters" (i.e. those in which the index respondent is infected) will demonstrate a greater degree of assortative mixing with regard to behavioral and psychosocial variables than uninfected clusters. For this purpose, we will take advantage of the fact that the intraclass correlation coefficient and the design effect derived from it measure intracluster homogeneity and are thus a direct measure of assortative mixing within clusters. Demonstration of such phenomena will be of use in designing interventions that incorporate network information into their formulation.