Methodological Developments in the Prevention of Adolescent Drug Use

描述（由申请人提供）：青少年使用药物的问题是研究人员，政策制定者和公众在健康，教育和社会后果方面非常关注的问题。由于大多数关于物质使用及其相关因素的数据是在自然环境中收集的，因此关于物质使用和滥用因果途径的结论受到了限制。这项赠款的培训部分的目标是提高。这两个PI的技能，在统计技术，以促进知识的发展和预防青年吸毒和PI的知识基础，有关问题的青年药物使用，重点是种族和性别差异。该研究计划的目标是应用当代和新的方法，以提高对青少年时期物质使用的规范发展轨迹的理解，以及在一系列性别和种族群体中这些轨迹的因果机制。该研究的第一个总体目标是确定预测和发展规范的青少年物质使用的一般和亚群特定模型，使用创新的轨迹和混合建模方法来分析来自NIDA资助的全国父母和青年调查的数据。鉴于不同种族和性别群体在这个大数据集中的规范轨迹，我们将确定青少年物质使用的既定预测因素的种族和性别特异性。第二个总的目的是测试假设的中介因果关系的干预对青少年物质使用的高风险青年，使用的数据从NIMH资助的快速通道项目，一个长期的干预计划和现场实验，旨在减少青年的行为问题。我们将首先测试第一个总体目标的结果的可复制性，然后使用培训计划中开发的技术，评估将快速通道干预与青少年物质使用变化联系起来的潜在因果途径和中介关系。NSPY和Fast Track数据集代表了在实验和非实验背景下研究物质使用发展的独特机会。我们将使用统计建模的最新进展，其中PI将接受培训，以提高我们对种族，性别和其他结构在物质使用预防中的复杂作用的理解。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The problem of substance use among adolescents is of great concern to researchers, policy makers, and the public in terms of health, education, and social consequences. Because most data regarding substance use and its correlates have been collected in natural settings, conclusions about the causal pathways to substance use and abuse have been constrained. The goal of the training portion of this grant is to enhance. both the Pi's skills in the statistical techniques for furthering knowledge of the development and prevention of youth drug use and the Pi's knowledge base in issues relating to youth substance use with a focus on ethnic and gender differences. The goal of the research program is to apply contemporary and new methods to improve understanding about the normative developmental trajectories of substance use during adolescence and the causal mechanisms in those trajectories across a range of gender and ethnic groups. The first general aim of the research is to identify general and subpopulation-specific models of the prediction and development of normative adolescent substance use, using innovative trajectory and mixture modeling methods to analyze data from the NIDA-funded National Survey of Parents and Youth-. Given the normative trajectories in this large dataset for different ethnic and gender groups, we will then identify the ethnic- and gender-specificity of established predictors of adolescent substance use. The second general aim is to test hypotheses of mediated causal effects of an intervention on adolescent substance use in high-risk youth, using data from the NIMH-funded Fast Track project, a long-term intervention program and field experiment intended to reduce youth conduct problems. We will first test the replicability of the findings from the first general aim, then - using techniques developed in the training program - evaluate potential causal pathways and mediating relations linking the Fast Track intervention to changes in adolescent substance use. The NSPY and Fast Track datasets represent unique opportunities to study the development of substance use in both experimental and non-experimental contexts. We will use recent and novel advances in statistical modeling, in which the PI will be trained, to advance our understanding of the complex role of ethnicity, gender, and other constructs in substance use prevention.