Sexual risk behavior in adolescence and the transition to adulthood: Longitudinal analyses of resilience.

Adolescence and the transition to adulthood are developmental periods when experimentation with and adoption of new roles and behaviors occur. This may include sexual risk behavior, which puts youth at risk of HIV, other sexually transmitted diseases, and unintended pregnancy. Addressing sexual risk behavior among youth is thus a vital public health issue, and understanding factors that influence it will help develop interventions. Much of the research on youth sexual risk behavior investigates risk factors. A resilience approach, however, investigates assets and resources that may influence risks. Much of the existing resilience research conceptualizes and tests relationships cross-sectionally, yet the development associated with adolescence and the transition to adulthood suggests a longitudinal approach may be more appropriate. This dissertation includes three longitudinal studies based on a sample made up of predominantly African-American, urban youth (n = 850). Participants were followed over eight years, starting in ninth grade. The study includes investigation of how the resources mother support and father support, and the risks psychological distress and substance use, influence the sexual risk behaviors of participants. Results across the three studies indicate that, in high school, the support of mothers and fathers influence sexual risk behaviors, though in somewhat different ways. Structural equation modeling indicated that mother support and father support indirectly compensated for the risk factors through mediation. Mother support influenced sexual risk behavior through psychological distress and substance use, while father support influenced sexual risk behavior through substance use. Growth curve modeling indicated that sexual risk behavior increased during adolescence, and peaked during the transition to adulthood. During adolescence, mother support interacted with substance use, and father support interacted with psychological distress, such that support initially protected against the negative effects of the risks. Only substance use was found to influence sexual risk behavior during the transition to adulthood. The study suggests that longitudinal models focusing on assets and resources may be useful in understanding sexual risk behavior of youth. Implications for interventions to prevent risky sexual behavior among youth suggest that focusing on early adolescence, enhancing mother and father support, alleviating psychological distress, and reducing substance use may be effective.Ph.D.EducationHealth and Environmental SciencesHealth educationPublic healthUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/125075/2/3186626.pd