OBJECTIVE African American female adolescents face disparities compared with White peers in the interrelated areas of mental health symptoms and sexually transmitted infection (STI) acquisition. IMARA (Informed, Motivated, Aware and Responsible about AIDS) is a group-based mother-daughter intervention addressing these factors among African American teenagers. Previous work demonstrated that female adolescents who received IMARA were 43% less likely than controls to evidence a new STI at 1 year. This report aimed to provide the 1st test of IMARA on externalizing and internalizing symptoms and an exploratory analysis of whether symptom improvements were associated with the protective effect of treatment against future STIs. METHOD Female African Americans aged 14-18 years (M = 16; N = 199) were randomly assigned to IMARA or a health promotion control group matched for time and structure. They completed the Youth Self-Report of externalizing and internalizing symptoms at baseline and at 6 and 12 months and were tested for STIs at baseline and 12 months; positive cases were treated. Hierarchical linear modeling tested symptom change over time, including the moderating effects of baseline symptoms. RESULTS Among participants who entered with high versus lower externalizing symptoms, those who received IMARA showed a slightly greater decrease in externalizing scores relative to the control (p = .035). For these youth, symptom improvements appeared to be associated with IMARA's protective effect against new STIs. Treatment was not associated with internalizing symptom change (p > .05). CONCLUSION IMARA shows promise in modestly reducing self-reported externalizing symptoms, although only for participants with high scores at baseline. The possibility that externalizing symptom improvement is linked with reduced STI acquisition warrants future examination. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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接受母女性健康干预后 1 年多的非裔美国女性青少年外化和内化症状的变化。

目标 与白人同龄人相比，非洲裔美国女性青少年在心理健康症状和性传播感染 (STI) 获得等相关领域面临着差异。IMARA（对艾滋病知情、积极、了解和负责）是一项以小组为基础的母女干预措施，旨在解决非裔美国青少年中的这些因素。之前的研究表明，接受 IMARA 治疗的女性青少年在 1 年时出现新 STI 的可能性比对照组低 43%。本报告旨在提供 IMARA 对外化和内化症状的第一次测试，并探索性分析症状改善是否与治疗对未来 STI 的保护作用相关。方法 14-18 岁的非裔美国人女性（M = 16；N = 199) 被随机分配到 IMARA 或时间和结构相匹配的健康促进对照组。他们在基线以及 6 个月和 12 个月时完成了关于外化和内化症状的青少年自我报告，并在基线和 12 个月时进行了性传播感染检测；阳性病例得到治疗。分层线性模型测试了症状随时间的变化，包括基线症状的调节作用。结果 在外化症状高和外化症状低的参与者中，接受 IMARA 的参与者相对于对照组表现出外化分数略有下降 (p = .035)。对于这些年轻人，症状改善似乎与 IMARA 对新性传播感染的保护作用有关。治疗与内化症状改变无关 (p > .05)。结论 IMARA 显示出适度减少自我报告的外化症状的希望，尽管仅适用于基线得分高的参与者。外化症状改善与性传播感染减少相关的可能性值得进一步研究。（PsycINFO 数据库记录 (c) 2020 APA，保留所有权利）。