Abstract
Purpose
Advances in research have broadened our understanding of the risky behaviors that
significantly threaten adolescent health and well-being. Advances include: using person-centered,
rather than behavior-centered approaches to examine how behaviors co-occur; greater
focus on how environmental factors, such as family, or peer-level characteristics,
influence behavior; and examination of how behaviors affect well-being in young adulthood.
Use of nationally representative, longitudinal data would expand research on these
critical relationships.
Methods
Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1997 cohort, a nationally
representative sample of adolescents who are being followed over time, the present
study: (1) identifies profiles of risky behaviors, (2) investigates how environmental
characteristics predict these profiles of risky behaviors (e.g., delinquency, smoking,
drug use, drinking, sexual behavior, and exercise), and (3) examines how these profiles
of risky behaviors relate to positive and negative youth outcomes.
Results
Four “risk profiles” were identified: a high-risk group (those who report high levels
of participation in numerous behaviors), a low-risk group (those who engage in very
few risky behaviors), and two moderate risk-taking groups. We found that profiles
with any negative behaviors were predictive of negative outcomes.
Conclusions
It is important for practitioners to examine health behaviors in multiple domains
concurrently rather than individually in isolation. Interventions and research should
not simply target adolescents engaging in high levels of risky behavior but also adolescents
who are engaging in lower levels of risky behavior.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: June 01, 2009
Accepted:
February 2,
2009
Received:
May 16,
2008
Identification
Copyright
© 2009 Society for Adolescent Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
