Patterns of adolescent drug use and other problem behaviors will be studied in a population of disadvantaged, inner city Black and Puerto Rican early/middle adolescents (ages 12-17). The patterns of problem behaviors will be characterized by age of onset, state, rate of progression across stages, and frequency of current involvement. The overall goal is to examine the interconnections of personality, family, peer, context, and acculturation variables as risk factors for involvement in drug use and other problem behaviors and for specific AIDS-related behaviors. Protective factors that can lessen the risk of adolescents' engaging in such behavior will also be emphasized. It is hypothesized that some risks will be common to all adolescents while others will have differential impacts for each of the factors, both singly and in interactions with differing subsets of the early/middle adolescent population. Thus, analyses will be performed by ethnicity, age, and sex. Differences in age of onset for each problem behavior are of particular interest, as well as the patterns of progression through the developmental sequence for each behavior. Approximately 1600 male and female students in grades 7-10 will be given self-administered questionnaires assessing the dimensions relevant to the study. In addition, their parents will be interviewed by telephone. A sample of 200 school dropouts will also be included. Factor-analyzed scales with adequate psychometric properties will be developed from the questionnaire items. The primary analytic techniques for the analyses will be latent variable models and/or hierarchical regression. The significance of this study lies in its attempt to investigate in-depth and comprehensively the determinants of drug use and other problem behaviors in minority populations for whom little such data are available. A proven research approach emphasizing family interactional theory will be used and extended by the inclusion of important contextual factors (e.g., neighborhood, school, street cultural influences) and acculturation factors (e.g., language, ethnic identify, cultural heritage). It is hoped that delineation of the pathways to, and interrelations of, problem behaviors in a high risk population will provide strong guidelines for early prevention efforts. Further, our goal of identifying protective factors that can help offset risks for problem behavior should provide the detailed and differentiated information base about subsets of inner city, disadvantaged, minority young adolescents needed as guidelines to design targeted, effective programs for prevention and treatment.
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