Behavioral clustering in adolescents with STDs

描述(由申请者提供)：尽管青少年中的性传播疾病的风险得到了很好的描述，但对他们的性、吸毒和社交网络的知识还不够充分。此外，行为和心理社会因素在性传播疾病和血液传播感染(BBI)中的作用主要被认为是个人层面的，很少被视为群体现象。在这项研究中，我们将探索年轻人的网络是否表现出在行为和心理社会特征方面的分类混合，作为感染性病和BBIS的功能。我们的具体目标是(1.1)比较感染和未感染的男孩和女孩在特定行为、心理社会特征和关联类型方面的自我中心网络；(1.2)比较通过加入有共同联系的索引受访者创建的社会图(连通子图)；(1.3)比较青少年男孩和女孩自我中心网络和社会图随时间的变化；(1.4)估计行为/心理社会因素与网络因素在获得性传播疾病/BBIs方面的相对重要性；以及(2.0)检查在青少年群体中关于个人行为和心理社会因素的分类或错配混合与网络结构和性传播疾病/BBIs的发生有关的程度。我们建议招募20名男孩和20名女孩，年龄15岁(每名感染和未感染各10名)，在3年内对他们进行6次性传播疾病/BBIS访谈和检测，并在每隔一次访谈中，根据固定的链条设计引出接触者(每隔一次访谈总N=440)。由此产生的集群和分组将为测试与特定目标有关的假设提供基础，其中主要是网络结构将对感染的概率产生独立影响，以及“感染集群”(即指数受访者被感染的集群)将在行为和心理社会变量方面表现出比未感染集群更大程度的分类混合。为此，我们将利用这样一个事实，即类内相关系数及其衍生的设计效果衡量星系团内的同质性，因此是星系团内分类混合的直接衡量标准。这种现象的示范将有助于设计将网络信息纳入其制定的干预措施。

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.