Substance Use in Adolescents from High-risk Neighborhoods: Risk and Protection

描述（由申请人提供）：项目总结：虽然研究表明功能失调的社区通常与青少年的多种负面结果（包括物质使用）有关，但并非所有来自此类社区的个人都会发展出问题行为。尽管如此，在文献中还没有充分探讨将功能失调社区与青少年物质使用以及意想不到的弹性结果联系起来的具体机制。拟议的项目旨在通过研究青少年的社区、家庭和他们的个人特征如何与他们的药物使用产生积极和消极的关系，来弥合这一差距。我们认为，通过社会传染的过程，邻里功能障碍作为一种独立的发展风险，直接促进了接触邻里功能障碍的青少年产生反社会问题。我们还认为，这些反社会问题有一个发展的过程，青少年药物使用先于学校和行为问题。最后，我们认为，这些高风险社区与青少年结局之间的负相关可以通过积极的家庭关系来缓解，这是防止社区功能障碍的保护因素。这些假设将使用来自春田儿童发展项目（SCDP）的现有数据进行检验，这是一项对社区代表性儿童及其母亲样本的前瞻性纵向研究。拟议的R03将分析最后两个SCDP评估（T3和T4； N - 357，其中青少年药物使用进行了评估），并将研究社区，家庭和青少年自己的行为如何在一年的随访期内影响他们的药物使用。使用结构方程模型（SEM），我们将首先确定T3邻里功能障碍是否在一年后对青少年物质使用有风险，在控制了先前的物质使用和人口统计数据之后。接下来，我们将确定T3期青少年的其他反社会问题是否介导T3邻里功能障碍对T4物质使用的风险效应。最后，我们将通过分别分析(a)有和(b)没有积极家庭关系的青少年的T3社区功能障碍、T3反社会问题和T4物质使用之间的关系，来确定积极的家庭关系是否对功能失调社区的风险有保护作用。相关性：如果有积极家庭关系的青少年（与没有这种积极家庭关系的青少年相比）社区功能障碍对物质使用的风险效应降低，那么积极的家庭关系是防止社区功能障碍的保护因素，缓冲其风险效应，减少青少年物质使用严重的公共卫生问题的假设将得到支持。因此，可以制定更明智的预防努力，并针对高危社区的家庭和有药物使用危险但尚未从事药物使用的儿童。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Project summary: While research shows that dysfunctional neighborhoods are often associated with multiple negative outcomes in adolescents (including substance use), not all individuals from such neighborhoods develop problem behaviors. Still, the specific mechanisms connecting dysfunctional neighborhoods with adolescent substance use, as well as with unexpected resilient outcomes have not been adequately explored in the literature. The proposed project aims to bridge this gap, by examining how adolescents' neighborhoods, families and their individual characteristics relate both positively and negatively to their substance use. We argue that through the process of social contagion, neighborhood dysfunction acts as an independent developmental risk, to directly promote anti-social problems among adolescents exposed to it. We also argue that there is a developmental progression of these anti-social problems, with adolescent substance use being preceded by school and behavioral problems. Finally, we argue that these negative associations between high-risk neighborhoods and adolescent outcomes can be alleviated by positive family relationships, which are a protective factor against neighborhood dysfunction. These hypotheses will be tested using the existing data from the Springfield Child Development Project (SCDP), a prospective longitudinal study of a community-representative sample of children and their mothers. The proposed R03 will analyze the final two SCDP assessments (T3 and T4; N - 357, in which adolescent substance use was assessed), and will examine how neighborhoods, families, and adolescents' own behavior impact their substance use over a one year follow up period. Using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), we will first determine whether T3 neighborhood dysfunction is a risk for adolescent substance use one year later, after controlling for prior substance use and demographics. Next, we will determine whether adolescents' other anti-social problems at T3 mediate the risk effect of T3 neighborhood dysfunction on T4 substance use. Finally, we will determine whether positive family relationships have protective effects against the risk of dysfunctional neighborhoods, by separately analyzing the associations between T3 neighborhood dysfunction, T3 anti-social problems, and T4 substance use in adolescents who (a) do have, and (b) do not have positive family relationships. Relevance: If risk effects of neighborhood dysfunction on substance use are lessened in adolescents with positive family relationships (compared to adolescents without such positive relationships), then support will be obtained for the hypothesis that positive family relationships are a protective factor against neighborhood dysfunction, buffering its risk effects and reducing the serious public health problem of adolescent substance use. Consequently, more informed preventive efforts can be developed and aimed at families from high-risk neighborhoods and at children who are at risk for, but have not yet engaged in substance use.