Friendship Networks and Emergence of Substance Use

描述（由申请人提供）：我们建议通过对六年级至九年级青少年友谊网络的纵向调查来推进同伴对物质使用的影响研究。我们的方法结合了青少年问题行为、发展心理学和网络分析研究领域的优势。该项目的具体目标是：1)研究物质使用在友谊群体中作为相似性基础的发展作用；2)确定友谊网络对物质使用的影响和物质使用对友谊选择的贡献；3)确定朋友对物质使用影响的调节因子；4)检查同伴影响的网络来源，而不是直接的友谊群体；5)建立基于证据的预防计划对友谊网络的影响，以及这些影响作为计划对物质使用影响的中介的作用。本提案寻求资助，以分析在一项大型预防试验中收集的有价值的数据，该试验的具体目标不包括处理和分析我们工作的关键信息。该研究收集了五波数据，包括28所学校（N= 11000 +）两个年级的所有学生的友谊选择和各种自我报告措施，以及学校和社区特征的措施。该数据集优于之前关于同伴影响的研究，因为它从朋友自己的报告中衡量朋友的特征，包括对友谊网络和结果的几项纵向评估，涵盖了对物质使用和同伴关系至关重要的发展时期，使用了提供最大友谊网络覆盖的农村环境，并抽样了足够的学校来研究不同环境下同伴过程的变化。我们还将通过纵向扩散分析来克服先前同伴影响研究的一些局限性和偏见，该分析捕获了影响和友谊选择过程的扩展网络含义。理论家和研究人员都非常重视朋友对药物使用的影响，因此预防项目强调同伴抵抗技能，并利用同伴领袖来帮助传达他们的信息。拟议的研究力求克服我们在理解同伴影响方面的局限性，这些局限性阻碍了这些努力，从而寻求帮助减少未来的药物使用和滥用。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): We propose to advance the study of peer influence on substance use through a longitudinal investigation of adolescent friendship networks from 6th through 9th grades. Our approach combines the strengths of the fields of research on adolescent problem behavior, developmental psychology, and network analysis. The project's specific aims are 1) to examine the developing role of substance use as a basis of similarity within friendship groups; 2) to determine both the influence of friendship networks on substance use and the contribution of substance use to friendship selection; 3) to determine the moderators of friends' influence on substance use; 4) to examine network sources of peer influence other than the immediate friendship group, and 5) to establish the effects of an evidence-based prevention program on friendship networks and the role of those effects as mediators of the program's impact on substance use. This proposal seeks funding to analyze valuable data being collected in a large prevention trial, the specific aims of which do not include processing and analysis of the key information for our work. That study gathered five waves of data on both friendship choices and a variety of self-report measures for all students in two grade cohorts at 28 schools (N=11,000+) as well as measures of school and community characteristics. This dataset is superior to prior studies of peer influence in that it measures friends' characteristics from their own reports, includes several longitudinal assessments of both friendship networks and outcomes, covers a developmental period that is critical for both substance use and peer relations, uses rural settings that provide maximum coverage of friendship networks, and samples enough schools to study variation in peer processes across settings. We also will overcome some limitations and biases of prior research on peer influence through longitudinal diffusion analyses that capture the extended network implications of influence and friendship selection processes. Both theorists and researchers attribute great importance to friends' influence on substance use, and accordingly prevention programs emphasize peer resistance skills and use peer leaders to help convey their message. The proposed study strives to overcome the limitations in our understanding of peer influence that hamper these efforts and thereby seeks to help reduce future substance use and abuse.