In the original application (1 R01 DA05912-01), funds were requested to conduct a five-year cross-cultural and longitudinal study designed to assess the role of psychosocial factors in the early identification, progression, maintenance and/or cessation of drug use in a sample of Hispanic and non-Hispanic male adolescents between 11 and 15 years of age residing in Dade County (Miami) , Florida. However, the funding request in the original application was reduced from five years to three years with only one wave of data collection, then a second wave was added after the approval of a competing supplemental request. This competing continuation application requests two years of funding in order to complete research activities as originally described in the initial application. Current funding will lapse on Aug. 31, 1992. Therefore, this competing continuation would permit the completion of the research as designed, with a third wave (1992-3) and a final year (1993-4) of analyses. Continued funding would facilitate accomplishment of the scientific aims of the study which require three data points for developing/testing causal models and observing the development of adolescents during their middle school/junior high years. The proposed research covers data collection at wave 3 from three samples which constitutes the core of this study: adolescent boys (N=approximately 4,800) between 11 and 15 years of age, parents (N=approximately 2,300), and teachers (student N= approximately 2,150). The characteristics of the sample includes sufficient numbers of ethnically diverse respondents to determine whether existing theoretical assumptions are valid cross-culturally or whether sociocultural factors are affecting the relationships between personal, social and cultural factors and drug use and other forms of deviance. We also examine the role of cultural adjustments and conflicts as precursors or reinforcement for drug use among Hispanic adolescents. Although not included as an aim in the original application, a special battery of scales has also been developed and used in order to detect effects of social and social psychological factors on drug use that are specific to African American adolescents.
| Vega, W A; Apospori, E; Gil, A G et al. (1996) A replication and elaboration of the esteem-enhancement model. Psychiatry 59:128-44 |
| Zimmerman, R S; Khoury, E L; Vega, W A et al. (1995) Teacher and parent perceptions of behavior problems among a sample of African American, Hispanic, and non-Hispanic white students. Am J Community Psychol 23:181-97 |
| Vega, W A; Gil, A; Warheit, G et al. (1993) The relationship of drug use to suicide ideation and attempts among African American, Hispanic, and white non-Hispanic male adolescents. Suicide Life Threat Behav 23:110-9 |
| Vega, W A; Gil, A G; Warheit, G J et al. (1993) Acculturation and delinquent behavior among Cuban American adolescents: toward an empirical model. Am J Community Psychol 21:113-25 |
