The Effects of Parenting and Family Functioning on Adolescent Behavior

描述（由申请人提供）：本研究的总体目的是帮助设计更有效的以家庭为基础的预防干预措施，以减少青少年的性行为。由于现有的工具存在许多问题，本研究的具体目的是开发和验证一种全面的、基于系统的育儿和家庭功能测量方法，该方法可以可靠、有效地用于针对不同美国家庭的大型研究。该仪器将根据Likert（1932）标度法的五个步骤进行开发。通过审查现有文书，将产生一套详尽的项目，涵盖所有感兴趣的结构。每个项目都将由一个专家小组进行评分。为了进一步减少工具，以及评估每个变量的心理测量特性，该工具将被分配给参与者并分三个阶段进行测试。最终入选的项目将在每个阶段通过一套严格的标准。在第一阶段，将对来自不同种族背景的大约300名18-19岁的大学生进行在线测试。为了进一步完善这一工具，在第二阶段将与家长和青少年进行焦点小组讨论。在研究的第三阶段和主要部分，大约150名非洲裔美国人和150名欧洲裔美国青少年以及他们的一名父母（N=600）将从大芝加哥地区一所经济和种族多样化的高中的合格学生中抽取样本。抽样的男女人数相等。青少年和父母将完成对性活动、吸毒、心理健康、新的家庭功能测量和先前的家庭功能测量的测量。仪器的因素结构将通过使用标准结构方程建模程序的变量水平验证性因素分析进行测试。Campbell和Risk（1959）的多方法-多特征矩阵技术将用于评估该工具的收敛效度和判别效度。还将评估可能存在的种族和性别差异，以及父母和青少年之间的差异。由于有许多独特的特征，预计新的测量方法将比其他测量方法更好地预测青少年的性行为，特别是非洲裔美国青年。如果是这样，它将对更大规模的研究和基于家庭的预防干预的设计和成功产生重要影响。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The general purpose of this study is to help design more effective family-based prevention interventions for reducing adolescent sexual behavior. Because of many problems with preexisting instruments, the specific aim of this research is to develop and validate a comprehensive and systems based measure of parenting and family functioning that can be reliably and efficiently used in larger studies with diverse American families. The instrument will be developed according to the five steps of Likert's (1932) scaling method. An exhaustive set of items that cover all the constructs of interest will be generated by reviewing existing instruments. Each item will then be rated by a panel of experts. To further reduce the instrument, as well as assess the psychometric properties of each variable, the instrument will be administered to participants and tested in three phases. Items selected for final inclusion will pass a stringent set of criteria at each phase. During the first phase, the initial set of items will be administered online to approximately 300 18-19 year old undergraduate students from various racial backgrounds. To further refine the instrument, focus groups with parents and adolescents will occur during the second phase. During the third phase and main portion of the study, approximately 150 African American and 150 European American adolescents and one of their parents (N=600) will be sampled from a larger pool of eligible students at an economically and racially diverse high school in the greater Chicago area. Equal numbers of males and females will be sampled. Adolescents and parents will complete measures of sexual activity, drug use, psychological health, the new measure of family functioning and preexisting measures of family functioning. The factor structure of the instrument will be tested with variable-level confirmatory factor analyses using standard structural equation modeling procedures. Campbell and Risk's (1959) Multi-Method-Multi-Trait matrix technique will be used to assess the convergent and discriminant validity of the instrument. Possible racial and gender differences, as well as differences between parents and adolescents will also be assessed. Because of many unique features, it is expected that the new measure will be a better predictor of adolescent sexual behavior, especially for African American youth, than other measures. If so, it will have important implications for the design and success of larger studies and family-based prevention interventions.