Peer Talk Influence on Adolescent Sexual Risk, Dating Aggression & Substance Use

描述（由申请人提供）：拟进行的研究将通过直接检查16至19岁的同龄人之间的谈话来调查同龄人对青少年性风险、约会攻击和物质使用的影响。青春期是恋爱和性关系增加的时期，这是向成年过渡的显著经历，但也会带来脆弱性。特别是，意外怀孕、性传播感染和约会攻击是青少年普遍存在的问题，对长期身心健康构成危险，并给公共资源造成相当大的负担。其他危险行为，尤其是物质使用，似乎有着共同的发展途径。在青少年风险文献中，经常被忽视的是同龄人之间在这些问题上的信息传递和影响，因为友谊在青少年时期也更为重要。针对青少年危险行为的预防项目越来越注重改变基于同伴群体的规范和人际行为，但需要更多的基础科学来了解同伴影响的机制和影响，以便更好地利用它们进行干预。这项拟议的研究建立在一个正在进行的纵向项目的基础上，该项目提供了关于青少年危险行为和暴露于原生家庭攻击的多波数据，在这里被视为日后有害结果的预测因子。一个种族多元化的同性恋朋友社区样本将参与录制的、生态有效的讨论，讨论对他们生活重要的话题，包括约会和药物使用。这些坦诚的讨论允许测量同伴影响的认知、情感和行为过程。过程将通过人类评分员的编码和创新的计算机语音信号处理来测量声音的声学特征中的情感音调。对131对同伴进行纵向和多水平分析，以检验中介效应和相互作用，目的是：(1)研究同伴谈话与风险之间的关系，特别是约会攻击、性风险、性传播感染、怀孕和物质使用；(2)检验同伴谈话在原生家庭攻击与后期风险、恋爱关系质量之间的中介和调节作用；(3)探讨同伴谈话对结果影响的性别差异。本研究将整合以下方面的文献：攻击行为的代际传递；青少年约会攻击、性危险行为和药物使用；二元相互作用的观测编码与计算机分析促进青少年健康。我们认为，更好地理解同伴谈话的影响，对于设计更有效的干预措施，减少青少年怀孕、性传播感染、约会攻击和药物使用至关重要。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The proposed study will investigate peer influence on adolescent sexual risk, dating aggression, and substance use by directly examining talk between peers aged 16 to 19. Adolescence is a period of increased involvement in romantic and sexual relationships, which are salient experiences in the transition to adulthood, but also introduce vulnerabilities. In particular, unintended pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and dating aggression are prevalent problems in adolescence that pose dangers to long-term physical and mental health and incur considerable burden to public resources. Other risk behaviors, especially substance use, appear to share common developmental pathways. Often overlooked in the adolescent risk literature has been the transmission of information and influence between peers on these issues, given that friendships also assume more importance in adolescence. Preventive programs that target adolescent risk behavior have increasingly focused on changing peer group-based norms and interpersonal behaviors, but more basic science is necessary to understand the mechanisms and effects of peer influence so that they may be harnessed for improved intervention. The proposed study builds upon an ongoing longitudinal project that provides multiple waves of data on adolescents' risk behavior as well as exposure to family-of-origin aggression, treated here as a predictor of later deleterious outcomes. An ethnically diverse, community sample of same-sex friends will participate in videotaped, ecologically valid discussions of topics important to their lives, including dating and substance use. These candid discussions allow for measurement of cognitive, affective, and behavioral processes of peer influence. Processes will be measured through coding by human raters and also innovative computerized speech signal processing to measure emotional tone from acoustic characteristics of the voice. Longitudinal and multilevel analyses with 131 peer dyads will be used to test mediating and interacting effects, with aims to (1) examine associations between peer talk and risk, specifically dating aggression, sexual risk, STIs, pregnancy, and substance use; (2) test mediating and moderating roles for peer talk in the link between family-of-origin aggression and later risk and romantic relationship quality; and (3) explore gender differences in the effects of peer talk on outcomes. The proposed study will bridge literatures on: the intergenerational transmission of aggression; adolescent dating aggression, sexual risk behavior, and substance use; observational coding and computerized analysis of dyadic interaction; and adolescent health promotion. We argue that greater understanding of peer talk influence is critical to the design of more effective interventions for reducing teen pregnancy, STI transmission, dating aggression, and substance use among adolescents.