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Saturday, 16 November 2013
Learning Objective 1: Discuss key brain areas associated with adolescent decision making and risk behavior.
Learning Objective 2: Identify, list or describe neurocognitive and pyschosocial factors associated with sexual risk behavior of African American adolescent girls.
Background/Significance/Purpose: African American (AA) girls are disproportionately affected by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). These epidemics among adolescents in the U.S. are inextricably tied to individual, psychosocial and cultural phenomena. However, knowledge gaps persist, especially regarding the role of neurocognitive determinants of adolescent sexual risk behavior (SRB). The purpose of this pilot study is to examine: (1) neurocognitive and psychosocial correlates of SRB and (2) individual variation in associations between emotive/affective and cognitive control components of the social information processing network (SIPN) and individual variation in SRB, among AA girls. Design/Methods/Sample: This study is guided by the Biopsychosocial Model of Risk Taking (BMRT); a combined social neuroscience framework that incorporates biological, psychological, cognitive, environmental and social factors, which influence adolescent risk taking. 32 AA females ages 15-23 years were recruited from community organizations. Data Collection: A battery of computerized neuropsychological tests measured prefrontal cortex/executive function/decision-making, impulse control and emotive-cognitive function to examine the underlying cognitive mechanisms of decision making and correlates of SRB. Participants also completed sociodemographics, psychosocial and SRB-related surveys. Analysis: Bivariate correlations, mixed modeling and hierarchical regression statistics were used. Our results indicate that poor cognitive skills were significantly correlated to risky sexual patterns. Higher SRB is associated with poorer cognition, mainly poorer impulse control & also time to make affective choices. Some AA girls with high reported SRB (compared to low SRB) showed greater cognitive delay aversion during reward-related risk-taking (gambling). On average, AA girls with high SRB made more illogically based decisions and took longer to make decisions. Conclusions/Implications: Nurses should provide tailored HIV/STI prevention education based on important links between executive/affective cognition, impulse control & psychosocial factors and AA girls’ SRB. Findings will facilitate development and testing of future hypothesis-driven, culturally-specific, age-appropriate imaging, longitudinal and intervention studies.