Adolescent Peer Social Network Dynamics and Problem Behavior

生态学理论表明，青春期早期的同龄人群体经常形成， 鼓励问题行为，导致更密切，偏差倾向的同龄人群体， 如此循环往复。我们称这个过程为“有毒的同伴传染”。最好 非线性动态系统（Nonlinear Dynamic System，NDS）。我们建议发展新发展策略 解释问题行为（反社会行为， 攻击，物质使用）在中学同龄人的社会生态，特别是 把有害的同伴传染作为一个解释性假设来研究。本研究的开展将 在21所六至八年级的中学中， 积极行为支持（PBS）计划的资助组随机试验。一个主要 目的是调查学校之间有毒同伴传染差异的变化， 特别是PBS项目和对照学校之间。 该项目需要收集社会关系（社会网络）和相关 行为数据，并观察相互依赖的模式， 随着时间的推移。评估将在每学年进行四次， 连续两次进入六年级，直到八年级结束 在21所参与学校中的每一所;因此，每个队列12次观察。校级 将使用最近开发的统计方法SIENA创建模型 专门设计用于评估进化的社交网络和共同进化的模型 行为此外，两个水平的模型将开发时，影响显着不同， 学校为了实现这些雄心勃勃的目标， 学校和学生，有必要对SIENA进行几次重大升级 计算机软件，通过将其移植到多处理器来提高其估计性能 计算环境，并增强其能力，包括互动效果，充分- 信息多层次模型和跨层次交互。为此，我们 与开发SIENA的研究人员合作，进行必要的升级 项目目标。 这一项目的成果将包括：（a）估计有毒同行的流行情况， 在中学的一个变量样本中的传染;（B）在何种条件下，它是最 （c）公共广播服务作为一种阻止这种情况发生的方法的有效性;以及（d） 为处理这一问题提出了同侪指导的干预建议。这个项目将检查一个已经资助的随机分组试验的效果。 学校层面的积极行为干预对长期相互依赖的影响 早期青少年问题行为和同龄群体动态。这一过程，发展 从社会生态学和发展的理论来看，是有毒的同伴传染。非线性 动态模型的隶属行为相互依存将进行统计估计 使用计算机程序SIENA，从纵向（4x/年，6至8年级）数据 专门为模拟这些过程而开发。结果将解释同伴的作用 问题行为发展中的联系，积极行为支持对 这一联系，并提出新的途径，为今后的干预。

Ecological theory suggests that early adolescent peer groups regularly form which encourage problem behavior, leading to even closer, deviance-prone peer groups, and so on in a self-reinforcing cycle. We call this process ¿toxic peer contagion.¿ It is best conceptualized as a Nonlinear Dynamic System (NDS). We propose to develop NDS models that explain the onset to and growth of problem behaviors (antisocial behavior, aggression, substance use) in middle school peer social ecologies, and particularly to examine toxic peer contagion as an explanatory hypothesis. The study will be conducted in 21 sixth- to eighth-grade middle schools involved in an already underway, NIDA- funded group-randomized trial of the Positive Behavior Support (PBS) program. A major goal is to investigate variation in toxic peer contagion differences between schools, especially between PBS program and control schools. The project requires collecing social relationship (social network) and relevant behavioral data on multiple occasions, and observing the pattern of interdependence between them over time. Assessments will be conducted four times per school year, for two consecutive entering sixth-grade cohorts, through the end of their eighth-grade year in each of the 21 participating schools; thus, 12 observations per cohort. School-level models will be created using SIENA, a recently developed statistical methodology specifically designed to estimate models of evolving social networks and co-evolving behavior. Also, two-level models will be developed when effects vary significantly across schools. In order to accomplish these ambitious goals with this large, diverse sample of schools and students, it is necessary to perform several major upgrades to the SIENA computer software, improving its estimation performance by porting it to multiprocessor computing environments, and enhancing its ability to include interaction effects, full- information multilevel models, and cross-level interactions. For this purpose, we are partnering with the researchers who developed SIENA to make the upgrades necessary for project goals. The results of this project will include: (a) estimates of the prevalence of toxic peer contagion in a varigated sample of middle schools; (b) conditions under which it is most and least likely to occur; (c) the effectiveness of PBS as a way to discourage it; and (d) recommendations for peer-directed interventions for dealing with this problem. This project will examine the effect of a group-randomized trial of an already funded school-level positive behavior intervention on the over-time interdependence between early adolescent problem behavior and peer group dynamics. This process, developed from theories of social ecologies and development, is ¿toxic peer contagion.¿ Nonlinear dynamic models of affiliation-behavior interdependence will be statistically estimated from longitudinal (4x/yr, 6th to 8th grade) data using SIENA, a computer program specifically developed to model such processes. Results will explain the role of peer affiliations in development of problem behavior, the effect of positive behavior support on this linkage, and suggest new avenues for future interventions.