3-176 - Empirical Tests of Neighborhoods to Neurons in the Development of Risky Behaviors Among Mexican-origin Adolescents

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Mexican-origin adolescents are a substantial and growing segment of the U.S. adolescent population creating the need for interdisciplinary empirical studies of their development. This symposium draws on new research from three unique investigations designed to understand the development of risky behaviors in Mexican-adolescents. Particular attention is paid to the influences of neighborhood characteristics (two papers) and neurobiological factors (two papers) on outcomes signaling risky behavior in adolescence. Paper one presents a study focused on the association between level of neighborhood ethnic concentration and the development of alcohol-substance use two years later as moderated by adolescents’ English/Spanish language use. Paper two examines the association between adolescents’ perceptions of neighborhood disorder and risk-taking behavior on a simulated driving task one year later. Paper three presents results from work detailing the anatomical integration of the frontal and limbic regions of the brain in relation to adolescents’ risky decision-making. Paper four describes a study designed to assess differences in the functional connections between reward-processing and cognitive control regions of the brain in Mexican-origin adolescents who have either initiated or abstained from using substances. Discussion of these papers will underscore the importance of drawing on multiple levels of influences to more fully understand how development unfolds in an ethnic minority population.

Sub Unit

• Race, Ethnicity, Culture, Context

Chairs

• Amanda E Guyer, University of California, Davis

• Clinton Lee, University of California, Davis

Individual Presentations

• Neighborhood Ethnic Concentration and Substance Use Among Mexican Origin Adolescents: A Look at the Barrio Enclave Discrepancy - Presenting Author: Rebecca M. B. White, Arizona State University; Michaeline Jensen, Arizona State University; Nancy A Gonzales, Arizona State University; George P Knight, Arizona State Univ; Jenn-Yun Tein, Arizona State University

• Perception of Neighborhood Disorder and Risk-Taking Among Mexican-Origin Adolescents - Presenting Author: Clinton Lee, University of California, Davis; Jonathan Helm, Penn State; Thomas J Schofield, Iowa State University; Richard Whitney Robins, University of California, Davis; Amanda E Guyer, University of California, Davis

• Integration of Cortico-Limbic Tracts and Risky Decision-Making in Mexican-American Adolescents - Presenting Author: Adriana Galvan, University of California, Los Angeles; Diane Goldenberg, University of California, Los Angeles

• Nucleus Accumbens-Based Resting State Connectivity Networks: Associations with Substance Use in Mexican-Origin Adolescents - Presenting Author: David G Weissman, Univ of California Davis; Roberta Schriber, University of California, Davis; Catherine Fassbender, University of California, Davis; Richard Whitney Robins, University of California, Davis; Rand D Conger, Univ of California Davis; Paul David Hastings, U California, Davis; Amanda E Guyer, University of California, Davis