NCJ Number
218152
Journal
Journal of Youth and Adolescence Volume: 36 Issue: 3 Dated: April 2007 Pages: 279-289
Date Published
April 2007
Length
11 pages
Annotation
This paper discusses what the authors believe to be the primary factors that have led to the lack of a systematic examination of interrelations among various adolescent risk behavior, notably those associated with substance use, delinquent acts, and sexual activity.
Abstract
The paper first reviews how interrelationships among adolescent risk behaviors are typically studied; discusses proposed explanations for why risk behaviors are interrelated; and explains why such accounts matter to theory, research, and related intervention efforts. The authors then describe an aspect of structural equation modeling (SEM) related to the meaning of explaining variance in a latent risk-behavior factor that is often misinterpreted by risk-behavior research, but which has substantive implications. The paper then demonstrates a simple and easily interpreted method for directly examining hypotheses regarding why risk behaviors are linked. The authors then propose a novel inquiry procedure that is an important nexus for adolescent risk-behavior theory, research, and intervention efforts. They propose that explanatory factors should be evaluated in terms of whether they predict individual risk behaviors and account for the linkages among risk behavior. Affirmative evidence for both criteria would indicate that such predictors could be considered possible common predictive factors and possible sources of the linkages among multiple risk behaviors, i.e., potential linkage factors. 3 tables and 41 references