Early psychosocial deprivation and risk taking among adolescents in Romania

描述(申请人提供)：青春期是一个与危险行为急剧增加相关的发育期，包括使用药物和其他潜在危害健康的行为。已经进行了广泛的研究，以确定可能增加青少年参与危险行为的易感性的因素。在这些因素中，早期逆境及其对神经、社会认知和情感领域的发展影响往往与犯罪行为和冒险行为的易感性增加有关。虽然心理社会逆境与冒险行为之间的关系已经确立，但伦理和实践方面的担忧限制了我们进行实验研究的能力，这些实验研究将允许直接调查心理社会逆境对冒险行为的因果作用。因此，我们对这种关系的性质和背后的机制的了解仍然有限。根据这一国际合作应用的目标，本研究旨在解决这些限制，评估早期心理社会逆境对青少年冒险行为的影响，并探索通过行为测量评估的去抑制过程的中介作用。为此，我们将使用罗马尼亚独特的青少年样本，这些青少年在过去10年里参加了寄养/家庭干预的随机临床试验，现在正进入青春期早期。在这项临床试验中，罗马尼亚布加勒斯特的机构中被遗弃的婴儿被随机分配，要么被从机构中带走并被安置到家庭/寄养干预中，要么被留在机构照常照顾。随后对这些儿童进行了8岁的跟踪调查，因此样本在心理社会功能的多个领域都得到了很好的描述。鉴于样本的独特性和创新的评估方法，目前的研究提供了一个独特的机会，可以理解早期心理社会剥夺如何影响去抑制过程，作为冒险脆弱性，这可能反过来增加青少年参与危险行为的可能性。随着预防和干预努力朝着试图识别缺陷并为此类缺陷提供相关技能发展的具体战略发展，这一点尤其相关。因此，识别潜在缺陷和脆弱性的过程的能力对于针对风险最大者的预防和干预发展至关重要。 公共卫生相关性：对早期逆境对青少年冒险行为的影响以及去抑制过程的中介作用的经验支持，将促进我们对可能导致危险行为急剧增加的风险因素的理解，包括与这一发育阶段相关的物质使用和其他潜在的健康危害行为。来自这项研究的经验证据可能会指导针对与早期逆境相关的特定脆弱性的预防努力，在青春期后期危险行为升级之前。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Adolescence is a developmental period associated with a dramatic increase in risky behaviors including substance use and other potentially health-compromising behaviors. Extensive research has been conducted to identify the factors that may heighten the vulnerability for engagement in risk behaviors among adolescents. Among such factors, early adversity and its developmental effects across neural, socio-cognitive, and emotional domains has been often linked to heightened vulnerability for delinquent behaviors and risk taking. Although the relationship between psychosocial adversities and engagement in risk taking behavior has been well established, ethical and practical concerns have limited our ability to conduct experimental research that would allow a direct investigation of the causal role of psychosocial adversities on risk taking. As such, our knowledge about the nature of this relationship and the mechanisms underlying it remains limited. In line with the goals of this international collaboration application, the present study aims to address these limitations and assess the impact of early psychosocial adversities on adolescent risk taking, as well as to explore the mediating role of disinhibitory processes assessed through a behavioral measure. To this aim, we will use a unique sample of adolescents in Romania who, over the past 10 years, participated in a randomized clinical trial of a foster care/family intervention and who are now entering early adolescence. In this clinical trial, infants abandoned since birth and raised in institutions in Bucharest, Romania were randomly assigned either to be removed from the institution and placed into a family/foster care intervention or to be left in the institutions to care as usual. These children were subsequently followed through 8 years of age such that the sample has been well characterized with regard to multiple domains of psychosocial functioning. Given the uniqueness of the sample as well as the innovative assessment approach, the current study represents a unique opportunity to understand how early psychosocial deprivation may impact disinhibitory processes as risk taking vulnerability which may in turn heighten the likelihood of engagement in risky behaviors in adolescence. This is particularly relevant as prevention and intervention efforts move toward idiographic strategies that attempt to identify deficits and provide relevant skill development for such deficits. Thus, the ability to identify the processes underlying deficits and vulnerabilities is crucial for prevention and intervention development targeting those most at risk. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Empirical support for the impact of early adversity on risk-taking behavior among adolescents as well as for the mediating role of disinhibitory processes will accelerate our understanding of the risk factors that may be responsible for the dramatic increase in risky behaviors, including substance use and other potentially health- compromising behaviors, associated with this developmental period. Empirical evidence emerging from this study may guide prevention efforts targeting specific vulnerabilities associated with early adversity prior to the escalation of risky behaviors in later adolescence.