In this study, two longitudinal models of early adolescent risky sexual behaviors (RSB) were compared using a pooled sample of 267 Canadian and Italian adolescents (55% females; 53% Canadians) assessed yearly from grade 8 to 10. We focused on parenting practices (monitoring, control, limit setting), adolescent problem behaviors (antisocial behaviors, substance use) and their friends' deviance (antisocial behaviors, substance use) as predictors of condom use frequency and lifetime number of sexual partners. The socialization model postulates that youths' problem behaviors and RSB are behaviors learned within the friendship network where deviancy training can occur. The selection model posits that delinquent youth tend to affiliate with each other, and that RSB is one of many behaviors that can form the basis of selection. Using structural equation modeling, this study showed that the socialization model was the most accurate to explain the emergence of RSB. A full mediation of parenting practices, passing through deviant friends and youths' problem behavior, was observed for condom use. The same process applied to number of sexual partners, but a direct effect for parenting practices was also found. Keywords adolescent; deviant friends; longitudinal; parenting practices; risky sexual behaviors; selection; socialization; structural equation modeling Most heterosexual teenagers begin to show interest in the opposite gender in early adolescence. However, the proportion of youth initiating sexual activity sometime during their teens is increasing in the United States (Katchadourian, 1990), Canada (MatickaTyndale, Barrett, & McKay, 2000), and some European countries, such as France, England and Sweden (Bajos, Ducot, Spencer, & Spira, 1997;Panchaud, Singh, Feivelson, & Darroch, 2000;Wellings, Field, Johnson, & Wadsworth, 1994). Although a developing awareness of sexuality and a participation in some forms of sexual behavior are normative during adolescence, some youth engage in risky sexual behaviors (RSB), such as having intercourse with multiple partners and misusing or underusing condoms, thus increasing their likelihood of contracting a sexually transmitted infection (STI) such as HIV/AIDS (Alix, Leaune, & Auger, 2001;Boyce, 2004; Brener, Kann, Lowry, Wechsler, & Romero, © 2009 The International Society for the Study of Behavioural Development Correspondence should be sent to Marie-Aude Boislard P., c/o François Poulin, Département de Psychologie, Université du Québec à Montréal, CP 8888, Succursale Centre-ville, Montréal, Québec, Canada, H3C 3P8; tel. 514-987-3000 # 7766; boislard-pepin.marieaude@uqam.ca.
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Author ManuscriptInt J Behav Dev. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2011 August 17. Rotermann, 2005). Among all sexually active persons in Canada, teenagers currently have the highest incidence of STIs (Gouvernement du Canada, 2005;Gouvernement du Québec, 2004;McKay, 2004), a situation that is also evident in European countries, such as England and Wales (Panchaud et al., 2000).Cur...