Peers or Me? Understanding Mediating Pathways of Risk Behaviors in Minority Youth

• In Event: Research on Health-Risk Behaviors among Adolescents: Drug Use and Weapon Carrying

Abstract

Though taking risks in adolescence is fairly common and even considered normative, the intensity and combination of multiple risky behaviors (e.g., alcohol use, risky sex) might carry long-term and sometimes life threatening consequences. Individual characteristics, school, and peer influences have been found to predict risk taking in youth with less attention devoted to those potential effects over time across different ethnic groups. Informed by Jessor’s Theory of Problem Behavior, we examine the longitudinal relationship between academic problems, autonomy granting, impulsivity, peer alcohol use, adolescent’s drinking frequency, and risky sex among 13-19 years old (N= 4,428; African American, Caucasian, and Hispanics; Add Health). A baseline assessment comparing adolescent drinkers (N=2,334) and non-drinkers (N=2,094) provided evidence of higher deviant peer association and school troubles among drinkers across all ethnic groups. Significant longitudinal effects were found for impulsivity and drinking frequency on risky sex and academic problems in the total sample; whereas, no significant effects were found for autonomy. Peer alcohol use was significantly associated with higher adolescent alcohol consumption. Further analysis will explore mediating effects of alcohol use on adolescents’ longitudinal outcomes across ethnic groups using multi-group analyses (SEM). Prevention strategies to assess and control risk behaviors in adolescents will be discussed.

Authors

• Manju Chawla, Texas Tech University

• Elizabeth Trejos-Castillo, Texas Tech University