Promotive and Protective Factors for Alcohol Use and Problems in Emerging Adults

描述（由申请人提供）：新成年人（18-25岁）的大量饮酒是一个主要的公共卫生问题，近年来引起了人们的广泛关注，有助于加强制定有效预防计划的努力（NIAAA，2002）。虽然若干预防办法已显示出积极的效果，但这些效果的幅度通常很小，这表明需要采取替代或补充办法。大多数针对成年人的预防计划都试图减少酗酒的已知风险因素，而相对较少关注促进负责任饮酒的因素，或防止同伴影响等既定风险因素的因素。 潜在的促进/保护因素的例子包括自我调节技能，宗教信仰，父母的影响，个人价值观，以及参与学校和社区。虽然有促进/保护因素在新兴的成年人的研究有限，有大量的文献对这些影响在青少年，这方面的知识基础已被有效地应用到新的预防方法的发展。支持促进和保护因素的计划可能在新兴成年人中具有类似的效用，但需要全面了解新兴成年人的这些影响，以告知此类计划的发展。拟议中的研究旨在通过对大学生样本和非大学同龄人的横断面样本的六年前瞻性数据进行二次分析来发展这一知识基础。建议的研究计划将针对以下主要研究目的：（1）确定主要类别的促进/保护因素，以防止成年人酗酒及相关问题;（2）确定促进因素的主要作用和风险因素的适度程度（例如保护因素）预测酒精使用和问题;（3）确定促进因素和风险因素的调节作用在预测饮酒行为和问题变化中的主要作用（轨迹）从青春期后期到成年初显;（4）为即将入学的大学新生制定一项新的预防计划，旨在加强促进/保护的影响。拟议中的研究将在几个重要方面推动该领域的发展。首先，这项研究将是第一个同时研究在这个关键的发展时期，建立良好的风险因素和广泛的促进/保护影响。此外，这将是第一个这样的研究，利用纵向数据，跨越多年（六年），从青春期后期到新兴的成年使用最先进的统计方法（潜伏生长曲线建模）。此外，大学和非大学新兴成年人的大而多样的样本将使我们能够检查调查结果的普遍性，以新兴成年人在性别，种族/民族和学生身份方面有所不同。最后，通过这项研究所获得的知识将直接应用到一个新的预防计划的一年级大学生的发展。该方案旨在加强这一高危人群中已确定的促进/保护因素。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Heavy drinking among emerging adults (18-25 years) is a major public health issue that has garnered substantial attention in recent years, contributing to increased efforts to develop effective prevention programs (NIAAA, 2002). Although several prevention approaches have demonstrated positive effects, the magnitude of these effects is typically quite small, suggesting that alternative or complementary approaches are needed. Most prevention programs for emerging adults seek to reduce known risk factors for heavy drinking, with relatively little attention devoted to the identification of factors that promote responsible drinking, or that protect against established risk factors like peer influence. Examples of potential promotive/protective factors include self-regulation skills, religiosity, parental influence, personal values, and engagement in school and the community. Although there is limited research on promotive/protective factors in emerging adults, there is a substantial literature on these influences in adolescents, and this knowledge base has been effectively applied to the development of novel prevention approaches. Programs that bolster promotive and protective factors might have similar utility among emerging adults, but a comprehensive understanding of these influences in emerging adults is needed to inform the development of such programs. The proposed study seeks to develop this knowledge base through secondary analysis of six years of prospective data from a sample of college students and a cross-sectional sample of non-college peers. The proposed project will address the following major research aims: (1) identify major classes of promotive/protective factors against heavy drinking and related problems in emerging adults; (2) identify main effects of promotive factors and moderation of risk factors (e.g. protective factors) in the prediction of alcohol use and problems; (3) identify main effects of promotive factors and moderation of risk factors in the prediction of changes in drinking behavior and problems (trajectories) from late adolescence through emerging adulthood; and (4) develop a novel prevention program for incoming college freshmen that seeks to bolster promotive/protective influences. The proposed study will advance the field in several important ways. First, this study will be among the first to simultaneously examine well established risk factors and a wide range of promotive/protective influences during this critical developmental period. In addition, this will be the first such stud to utilize longitudinal data that spans multiple years (six years) from late adolescence into emerging adulthood using state of the art statistical approaches (latent-growth curve modeling). Further, the large and diverse sample of both college and non-college emerging adults will allow us to examine the generalizability of the findings to emerging adults who differ with respect to gender, race/ethnicity, and student status. Finally, the knowledge gained through this study will be directly applied to the development of a novel prevention program for first year college students. This program will be designed to strengthen identified promotive/protective factors in this high-risk population.