The relation of psychosocial protective factors to involvement in problem behavior-alcohol and drug abuse, delinquency, and sexual precocity-was investigated in a longitudinal study of 7th-, 8th-, and 9th-grade adolescents in a large, urban school district. Protective factors were drawn from the personality, the perceived environment, and the behavior systems of problem-behavior theory. The findings show a significant inverse relation between protection and problem-behavior involvement. There is a significant interaction between protection and risk in the prediction of problem behavior: Protection is shown to moderate the relation of risk to problem behavior. Protective factors are also significant predictors of change in adolescent problem behavior over time. Direct effects of protection are consistent across all gender and racial/ethnic subgroups; moderator effects are evident for female, White, and Hispanic subgroups only.Research on adolescent involvement in problem behavior, indeed, on adolescent behavior and development more generally, has become more complex in recent years. Multivariate inquiries now map both social and personal influences over time and are displacing single-variable, single-domain, cross-sectional approaches (Jessor, 1993). Increased complexity is also evident in studies that go beyond traditional concerns with demonstrating "main effects" to explore interactive relations among predictor variables as well, and to examine whether those interactions moderate predicted linkages with behavior. The latter kind of complexity is the focus of this article. We report an investigation of the relationships between psychosocial protective factors and involvement in problem behavior in adolescence: alcohol and drug abuse, delinquency, and sexual precocity. The effects of protective factors and their role as moderators of the relationship between risk factors and problem behavior are examined cross-sectionally as well as over time.Interest in protective factors emerged initially from work in developmental psychopathology. The observation, among children similarly exposed to risk for psychopathology, that many
An explanatory model of adolescent problem behavior (problem drinking, cigarette smoking, and general delinquency) based on protective and risk factors in the individual and in 4 social contexts (family, peer group, school, and neighborhood) is employed in school‐based samples from the People's Republic of China (N=1,739) and the United States (N=1,596). Despite lower prevalence of the problem behaviors in the Chinese sample, especially for girls, a substantial account of problem behavior is provided by the same protective and risk factors in both countries and for both genders. Protection is generally higher in the Chinese sample than in the U.S. sample, but in both samples protection also moderates the impact of risk. Despite mean differences in psychosocial protective and risk factors, as well as in problem behavior, in the 2 samples—differences that may reflect societal variation—the explanatory model has, to a large extent, cross‐national generality.
An earlier study of ours that used data collected in 1972 found that a single common factor accounted for the positive correlations among a number of adolescent problem behaviors, including problem drinking, marijuana use, delinquent-type behavior, and precocious sexual intercourse. The present maximum-likelihood factor analyses replicated this finding on new samples of male and female II th-and 12th-grade students tested 13 years later, in 1985. The findings lend further support to the concept of a syndrome of problem behavior in adolescence.
The role of psychosocial protective factors in adolescent health-enhancing behaviors--healthy diet, regular exercise, adequate sleep, good dental hygiene, and seatbelt use--was investigated among 1,493 Hispanic, White, and Black high school students in a large, urban school district. Both proximal (health-related) and distal (conventionality-related) protective factors have significant positive relations with health-enhancing behavior and with the development of health-enhancing behavior. In addition, in cross-sectional analyses, protection was shown to moderate risk. Key proximal protective factors are value on health, perceived effects of health-compromising behavior, and parents who model health behavior. Key distal protective factors are positive orientation to school, friends who model conventional behavior, involvement in prosocial activities, and church attendance. The findings suggest the importance of individual differences on a dimension of conventionality-unconventionality. Strengthening both proximal and distal protective factors may help to promote healthful behaviors in adolescence.
Research on adolescent involvement in problem behavior, indeed, on adolescent behavior and development more generally, has become more complex in recent years. Multivariate inquiries now map both social and personal influences over time and are displacing single-variable, singledomain, cross-sectional approaches ( Jessor, 1993). Increased complexity is also evident in studies that go beyond traditional concerns with demon-Reprinted from Developmental Psychology, 31, 923-933. (1995). Copyright 0 1995 by the American Psychological Association. Used with permission of the author.This study is a report from the research project, "Contraceptive and Health Behavior Over Time in Adolescence," supported by Grant 91-1194-88 from the William T. Grant Foundation, R. Jessor, principal investigator. Support from the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Successful Adolescent Development Among Young in High-Risk Settings is gratefully acknowledged. We are grateful to the officials of the school district involved for their gracious and extended cooperation. The contributions of John Donovan to this report are appreciated. The article has benefited particularly from the comments and suggestions of Gary H.
Examined the relation of psychosocial and behavioral conventionality-unconventionality to health-related behavior in cross-sectional data from 1,588 male and female 7th to 12th graders. Conventionality-unconventionality was represented by personality, perceived social environment, and behavior variables selected from the social-psychological framework of problem-behavior theory (R. Jessor & S. L. Jessor, 1977). Greater psychosocial conventionality correlates with more regular involvement in health-related behavior (regular physical activity, adequate sleep, safety belt use, attention to healthy diet). Greater behavioral conventionality (less involvement in problem behaviors such as marijuana use, problem drinking, delinquent-type behavior, and greater involvement in conventional behaviors such as church attendance) was also associated with greater involvement in health-maintaining behavior. The overall findings provide support for the extension of problem-behavior theory to the domain of adolescent health behavior and for the relevance of the dimension of conventionality-unconventionality.
Longitudinal psychosocial data are used to predict the transition from virginity to nonvirginity among adolescents, all of whom were virgins at the initial testing in 1970. By the most recent follow-up, in 1979, 93% reported having had sexual intercourse experience. Variation in time of onset of initial intercourse was categorized into six time periods and served as the main criterion variable in the study. Bivariate and multivariate analyses show that antecedent measures of personality, the perceived environment, and behavior are predictive of variation in time of onset and, taken together, can account for approximately 30% of the criterion variance. The results support the utility of the problem-behavior-theory framework and show onset of sexual intercourse to be a systematic aspect of psychosocial development in adolescence.
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