Objective: A theory-based protection/risk model was applied to explain variation in college students' heavy episodic drinking. Key aims were (1) to establish that psychosocial and behavioral protective factors and risk factors can account for cross-sectional and developmental variation in heavy episodic drinking, and (2) to examine whether protection moderates the impact of risk on heavy episodic drinking. Method: Random- and fixed-effects maximum likelihood regression analyses were used to examine data from a three-wave longitudinal study. Data were collected in fall of 2002, spring of 2003, and spring of 2004 from college students (N = 975; 548 men) who were first-semester freshmen at Wave 1. Results: Psychosocial and behavioral protective and risk factors accounted for substantial variation in college-student heavy episodic drinking, and protection moderated the impact of risk. Findings held for both genders and were consistent across the three separate waves of data. Key predictors of heavy episodic drinking were social and individual controls protection (e.g., parental sanctions for transgression and attitudinal intolerance of deviance, respectively); models risk (peer models for substance use); behavioral protection (attendance at religious services); and behavioral risk (cigarette smoking and marijuana use). Changes in controls protection, models risk, and opportunity risk were associated with change in heavy episodic drinking. Conclusions: An explanatory model based on both psychosocial and behavioral protective and risk factors was effective in accounting for variation in college-student heavy episodic drinking. A useful heuristic was demonstrated through the articulation of models, controls, support, opportunity, and vulnerability to characterize the social context, and of controls, vulnerability, and other behaviors to characterize individuals.

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.

OBJECTIVE:Research conducted in the 1970s demonstrated that Problem Behavior Theory could account for approximately 40% of the variance in problem drinking in both local and national sample studies. The present analyses sought to determine whether the personality, perceived environment, and behavior variables of the framework continue to contribute to the explanation of problem drinking among contemporary American youth.METHOD:Correlational and multiple regression analyses were performed on six separate databases collected at different times between 1972 and 1992. Due to sociodemographic differences among the samples, separate analyses were performed for male and female adolescents, and age, ethnicity and socioeconomic status were statistically controlled.RESULTS:There was considerable consistency across the samples in both the partial correlations and the partial multiple correlations, and this result held for both genders. Not only did the framework account for the same percentage of the variance (40%) in problem drinking in the 1992 data as it did in the 1972 data, but the results for the intervening years were consistent as well.CONCLUSIONS:The consistency of results over a 20-year period confirms that the social-psychological meaning of adolescent involvement in problem drinking has remained stable despite changes in the larger sociohistorical context.

OBJECTIVE:To establish the role of psychosocial risk and protective factors in cross-sectional variation in adolescent problem drinking, and in the transition into problem drinking over time.METHOD:The data were from a four-wave (1989-1992) longitudinal study of 1,591 adolescents in a large, urban school district. School district officials selected schools for the study with an aim toward maximizing representation of minority students from inner-city areas. At Wave 1, all students in Grades 7, 8, and 9 were asked to participate.RESULTS:Both psychosocial risk factors (such as low expectations for success, peer models for substance use, and poor school performance) and psychosocial protective factors (such as intolerance of deviance, peer models for conventional behavior, and involvement in prosocial activities) account for significant cross-sectional variation in adolescents' involvement in problem drinking, as indicated by more frequent drunkenness and more numerous instances of alcohol-related problems. They also account for significant variation in the timing of transition into problem drinking during adolescence. Higher risk and lower protection are each associated with greater problem use of alcohol. Among adolescents who are not problem drinkers, higher risk and lower protection accelerate the likelihood of becoming a problem drinker in subsequent years. Protection also moderates the impact of risk in the cross-sectional account of involvement in problem drinking, but protective factors appear not to play a moderating role in the longitudinal account of the transition into problem drinking. Findings were similar for males and females and among white, black and Hispanic adolescents.CONCLUSIONS:Protective factors play an independent role in accounting for adolescent involvement in problem drinking and in the transition into problem drinking in adolescence. Intervention efforts to enhance protection, especially for adolescents who are exposed to risk, should supplement efforts to reduce risk.

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.

Findings are presented from a study assessing the relationship of contraceptive use to adolescent problem behavior and health-protective behavior. Study data were collected in spring 1992 from 793 sexually active, unmarried high school students in a large, metropolitan school district. Respondents are 51% male and approximately 34% White, 22% Black, 40% Hispanic, 2% Asian, and 2% Native American. A latent variable measure of regular contraceptive use was shown to be negatively correlated with latent constructs of alcohol use, drug use, aggression, and delinquency, and positively correlated with latent variables of diet, exercise, seatbelt use, and dental hygiene. These findings point to the need to conceptualize contraceptive behavior within broader domains of behavior.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to determine psychosocial and behavioral factors that are associated with variation in contraceptive use among adolescents. Because regular use of contraception may be seen both as a conventional behavior and as a health-protective behavior, analyses assess the association between psychosocial conventionality and health orientation, on the one hand, and variation in contraceptive use, on the other.Methods: Analyses are based on an urban sample of 971 white, African-American, and Hispanic male and female sexually active high school students. Study participants filled out a SS-page questionnaire that included a wide range of measures derived from Problem-Behavior Theory.Results: Correlational analysis and hierarchical regression analysis indicate that more regular contraceptive use is associated with greater psychosocial conventionality and also with greater orientation toward health for both male and female adolescents. These relationships hold when the sociodemographic characteristics of race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, grade in school, family composition, and pregnancy experience are controlled. The linkages of psychosocial conventionality and health orientation to contraceptive behavior are stronger for African-American than for white and Hispanic adolescents.Conclusions: The present findings establish a more comprehensive and more distal set of influences on regularity of contraceptive use. In its negative relationship to problem behavior and its positive linkage with health behavior, contraceptive behavior may be seen as part of a larger, organized system of behavior in this stage of development (i.e., a more conventional adolescent lifestyle).

Longitudinal data were used to examine the relationship of psychosocial unconventionality-rejection of societal norms and a propensity to engage in nonconforming behavior-to early initiation of sexual intercourse in an urban sample of 1,330 White, Hispanic, and African-American male and female middle-school and high-school students. Measures of unconventionality were taken from the social-psychological framework of Problem-Behavior Theory. Analysis of variance and Cox proportional hazard regression analysis were used to test the linkage of these measures to earlier initiation of intercourse. The model fit the data well for White and Hispanic youths; greater prior unconventionality was associated longitudinally with earlier transition to nonvirginity. The model was less appropriate for African-American adolescents. Reasons for these group differences are discussed.

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.

The structure of the interrelations among a variety of health-enhancing behaviors was examined using structural equation modeling analyses of questionnaire data from 1,280 middle school students and 2,219 high school students. The health-enhancing behaviors included seat belt use, adequate hours of sleep, attention to healthy diet, adequate exercise, low sedentary behavior, and regular toothbrushing. In the middle school sample, all of the health-enhancing behaviors correlated significantly but modestly with each other, except for sleep with toothbrushing. In the high school sample, all but three of the 15 correlations among the behaviors were significant. The results further show that a single underlying factor can account for the modest correlations among these health-enhancing behaviors in both samples. The generality of the single-factor model was also established for male, female, White, Hispanic, and Black students at each school level. These findings provide some support for the existence of health-related lifestyles in adolescence.

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.

A five‐item measure of value on health, a new variable in the Personality System of Problem‐Behavior Theory (Jessor & Jessor, 1977), was construct‐validated using cross‐sectional data from 1588 male and female 7–12th grade students. Three aspects of construct validity were explored: first, the convergent and discriminant validity of the Value on Health Scale with other health‐related psychosocial measures; second, the predictive validity of the Value on Health Scale in relation to health behaviors; and third, the theoretical validity of the Value on Health Scale in relation to other constructs reflecting conventionality‐unconventionality in Problem‐Behavior Theory. Value on Health related significantly to other health‐related psychosocial measures such as self‐description of health, and parental and peer models for health‐enhancing behavior. Value on Health also related significantly to greater involvement in health‐enhancing behaviors (e.g., regular physical exercise, seatbelt use, and attention to healthy diet). Finally, Value on Health was linked to a larger network of psychosocial and behavioral characteristics that reflect the underlying dimension of conventionality‐unconventionality in the Problem‐Behavior Theory framework. Value on health seems to be a useful addition to personality attributes that help explain variation in health behavior among adolescents. It would also seem to be an important target for prevention/intervention efforts with that age group.