Over 40,000 individuals in the United States are diagnosed with HIV each year (CDC, 2004), and though the number of newly diagnosed cases has declined in the broad population, rates of HIV infection of young adults remains constant (CDC, 2001). A large body of research suggests that alcohol and drug use are two risk-taking behaviors that place individuals at risk for HIV infection (e.g., Kotchick, Shaffer, Miller, &Forehand, 2001;Lynch, Krantz, Russell, Homberger, &Van Ness, 2000;Repetti, Taylor, &Seeman, 2002). Adolescents are particularly vulnerable to contracting HIV through these pathways because of their propensity to engage in risk-taking behaviors and inability to consider long-term consequences (Bailey, Camlin, &Ennett, 1998;Bartlett et al., 1995;Boyer, 2006;CDC, 2005;Hoffman, Klein, Eber, &Crosby, 2000;Peterson &DiClemente, 2000). Thus, understanding what makes certain adolescents more likely than others to engage in risk-taking behaviors has important implications for the development of HIV prevention programs. In the proposed study, I will examine two factors that have been linked to adolescent risk-taking behavior, including conflict in the parent-adolescent relationship and adolescent distress tolerance. The proposed project is an attempt to determine, for the first time, connections among observed parent- adolescent interactions, distress tolerance, and risk-taking behavior. Thus, the proposed study has three aims: (a) to examine the connection between observed parent-adolescent conflict and adolescent risk-taking behaviors, (b) to determine whether distress tolerance mediates the proposed link between observed parent-adolescent conflict and adolescent risk-taking behaviors, and (c) to determine whether distress tolerance moderates the proposed link between observed parent-adolescent conflict and adolescent risk-taking behaviors. Parents and adolescents will participate in an interaction task in which they discuss topics of frequent disagreement. Research assistants will be trained to use coding techniques in order to characterize the conflict during the parent-adolescent discussion. Adolescents will report about their risk-taking behaviors, and they will participate in a distress tolerance task. These methods will be used to examine links among parent-adolescent conflict, distress tolerance, and risky behavior in adolescence.
