Risky sexual behavior (RSB) (i.e., inconsistent condom use, multiple partners, sex while using alcohol or drugs) increases chances of sexually transmitted infections (STI) and unintended pregnancy. Girls are disproportionately affected; each year one in four sexually active 15-19 year-old females in the U.S. are estimated to have an STI and 15% experience unintended pregnancies. Understanding the mechanisms that place some girls at greater risk for engaging in RSB is crucial for reducing the public health burden of STIs and teenage pregnancy. Reward processing and maternal parenting predict adolescent girls' RSB, but how they interact is unknown. Maternal history of depression also predicts adolescent RSB, likely via its negative impact on parenting. Elucidating interactions between neural risk factors and family contextual processes could lead to innovative, personalized preventative interventions that disrupt patterns of RSB before they become engrained. In the current F32 application, the candidate seeks to address the following aims in a yet to be enrolled, subsample (n = 80) of 12-16 year-old adolescents girls and their mothers, recruited as part of an ongoing study of the intergenerational transmission of major depressive disorder (MDD) (K23MH113793). Half of the mothers (n = 40) will have histories of recurrent MDD and half will have no history of psychopathology (n = 40). The candidate proposes to utilize cost-efficient event-related potentials (ERP), derived from electroencephalogram (EEG), to identify whether greater neural reward responsiveness predicts girls' RSB over 18 months (AIM 1). The candidate will also delineate if maternal parenting moderates effects (AIM 2). The high-risk design of the sample will ensure adequate variability in parenting and adolescent RSB. The candidate seeks to build upon her strong background in developmental psychopathology and biosocial interactions in childhood by gaining new training in: 1) adolescent health-risk behaviors and mental health; 2) developmental affective neuroscience and EEG/ERP methodology; and 3) advanced longitudinal statistics. Training will occur in an outstanding and unique interdisciplinary environment at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She will jointly train in the newly established Center for Dissemination and Implementation Science and in the Department of Psychiatry, which has a strong tradition of affective neuroscience research. The candidate's mentors Drs. Donenberg, Burkhouse, Shankman, Bhaumik have expertise in adolescent health risk behaviors and mental health, developmental affective neuroscience methods (e.g., EEG/ERP), longitudinal high-risk designs, and advanced longitudinal analysis. The proposed study will inform the design of future projects examining whether neural and family mechanisms of risk can be synergistically targeted within personalized HIV/STI risk reduction programs. Accomplishing the study and training goals will allow the candidate to build an independent program of research focused on improving health and behavior outcomes for youth living in high-risk environments.
Mid-to-late adolescence (ages 15-19) is a period marked by high rates of sexual risk-taking, which results in increased exposure to sexual transmitted infections and likelihood of unintended pregnancies. The current study will be the first to delineate whether greater neural reward sensitivity prospectively predicts steeper increases in adolescent girl's sexual risk-taking and if maternal parenting characteristics modify pathways in a sample enriched for risk for sexual risk-taking (girls will have mothers with and without histories of recurrent depression). This work will contribute new scientific knowledge regarding the neural mechanisms that predict increased rates of sexual risk-taking among some adolescent girls and how these might be mitigated or exacerbated by maternal parenting characteristics, which in turn could be translated to personalized brain- behavior prevention strategies for this vulnerable population.
