Exploring Condom Use Behaviors Among African American Adolescent Boys in the Deep South.

Risky sexual behaviors among adolescents can increase adverse outcomes including unplanned pregnancy or contraction or transmission of disease. Adolescents who engage in risky sexual activities are at increased risk for adverse health and social outcomes compared to those who do not engage. Despite declines in adolescent pregnancy and birth rates, the diagnosis of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) is steadily increasing among adolescents.

A longitudinal study of the impact of school delinquency on self-worth development among Black American adolescents.

Previous research found adolescents with low self-worth often utilize delinquency as a method of "self-enhancing" as proposed by Kaplan, which suggests the effects of delinquency can be both enhancing and damaging to adolescents' later reports of self-worth. We tested Kaplan's self-enhancing thesis to determine the extent to which different levels of self-worth in early adolescents foretell long-term levels of self-worth associated with delinquency among adolescents placed at-risk. Data from a sample of 982 primarily Black American (95%) adolescents living in high-poverty neighborhoods were analyzed using global and behavioral self-worth measures collected annually between the ages of 12-17, with school delinquency as the self-enhancing mechanism.

Protective Factors Buffer Life Stress and Behavioral Health Outcomes among High-Risk Youth.

This study investigated internalizing problems, externalizing problems, and polydrug use among African-American youth residing in high-poverty neighborhoods, and tested the potential protective effects of religiosity, parental monitoring, and neighborhood collective efficacy on life stress and behavioral health outcomes (N = 576; 307 females; Mage = 16 years, SD = 1.44 years). A cumulative risk index reflected the combined effects of past year exposure to stressful life events, racial discrimination, and exposure to violence along with poor neighborhood ecology.

The interrelationships among pain interference, depressive symptoms, loneliness, and employment status: a moderated mediation study.

Objective: To explore the mediating effect of loneliness on the relationship between pain interference and depressive symptoms and to determine whether this mechanism is contingent on employment status.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Subjects: A total of 876 adult caregivers of adolescents living in extremely impoverished conditions.

Depression and Intimate Partner Violence Among African American Women Living in Impoverished Inner-City Neighborhoods.

Mental health correlates of intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization including negative physical and mental health outcomes are well documented. However, certain subgroups of African American women, such as those living in impoverished, urban communities, are underrepresented in most studies and may experience IPV at higher rates. Furthermore, the circumstances of this women including poverty makes them at risk to IPV and its consequences.

Family Matters: Examining Child Abuse and Neglect as Family Dysfunction for Minority Youth Living in Extreme Poverty.

Two competing models of child abuse and neglect (scapegoat vs. family dysfunction) are used to illustrate how the specification of victims ("index" victim vs. all children in household) from incidents of child abuse and neglect can be used to improve estimates of maltreatment for at-risk minority youth.

Bidirectional Relationships Between Parenting Processes and Deviance in a Sample of Inner-City African American Youth.

The current study assessed for bidirectional relationships among supportive parenting (knowledge), negative parenting (permissiveness), and deviance in a sample ( = 5,325) of poor, inner-city African American youth from the Mobile Youth Survey (MYS) over 4 years. Cross-lagged path analysis provided evidence of significant bidirectional paths among parenting processes (knowledge and permissiveness) and deviance over time. Follow-up multigroup tests provided only modest evidence of dissimilar relationships by sex and by developmental periods.

Prospective Relations among Low-Income African American Adolescents' Maternal Attachment Security, Self-Worth, and Risk Behaviors.

This study examined prospective mediating relations among mother-adolescent attachment security, self-worth, and risk behaviors, including substance use and violence, across ages 13-17 in a sample of 901 low-income African American adolescents. Path analyses revealed that self-worth was a significant mediator between attachment security and risk behaviors, such that earlier attachment security predicted self-worth 1 year later, which in turn, predicted substance use, weapon carrying, and fighting in the 3rd year. Implications for the role of the secure base concept within the context of urban poverty are discussed.

Risk and protective factors for comorbid internalizing and externalizing problems among economically disadvantaged African American youth.

Comorbidity of internalizing and externalizing problems and its risk and protective factors have not been well incorporated into developmental research, especially among racial minority youth from high-poverty neighborhoods. The present study identified a latent comorbid factor as well as specific factors underlying internalizing and externalizing problems among 592 African American adolescents living in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods (291 male; M age = 15.9 years, SD = 1.

The impact of sexuality concerns on teenage pregnancy: a consequence of heteronormativity?

In countries such as the USA, a substantial percentage of teenage pregnancies are intentional, and desire for pregnancy increases risk. Black US Americans have been found to be less accepting of homosexuality than their non-Black peers, which may result in minority ethnic teenagers demonstrating heterosexual orientation through attempting pregnancy. Young, socioeconomically disadvantaged African Americans were surveyed longitudinally regarding attitudes about their sexuality, pregnancy intentions and other psychosocial factors.

Effect of Environmental Risk and Externalizing Comorbidity on Internalizing Problems Among Economically Disadvantaged African American Youth.

This study examined effects of racial discrimination, community violence, and stressful life events on internalizing problems among African American youth from high poverty neighborhoods ( = 607; 293 boys; age = 16.0 years, = 1.44 years).

Does it really matter which drug you choose? An examination of the influence of type of drug on type of risky sexual behavior.

This study investigates whether certain types of substances are differentially related to certain risky sexual behaviors (RSBs) within the same population and determines whether combination substance use (SU) has additive, redundant or antagonistic effects on RSBs. African-American youth aged 9-19 participated in a large, community-based survey assessing substance use and sexual behaviors. Multilevel modeling was used to predict the differential influence of alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine use on condom use measured in the past 90days and at last intercourse, sex while drunk/high, and number of sexual partners.

Genes involved in stress response and alcohol use among high-risk African American youth.

Background: Genetic and environmental factors influence substance use behaviors in youth. One of the known environmental risk factors is exposure to life stressors. The aim of this project is to study the interaction between NR3C1 and CRHBP, genes thought to be involved in stress pathways, exposure to stressful life events, and adolescent alcohol use/misuse.

Dimensionality and Genetic Correlates of Problem Behavior in Low-Income African American Adolescents.

Researchers have long observed that problem behaviors tend to cluster together, particularly among adolescents. Epidemiological studies have suggested that this covariation is due, in part, to common genetic influences, and a number of plausible candidates have emerged as targets for investigation. To date, however, genetic association studies of these behaviors have focused mostly on unidimensional models of individual phenotypes within European American samples.

SOCIO-ECOLOGICAL PREDICTORS OF INTERCOURSE FREQUENCY AND NUMBER OF SEXUAL PARTNERS AMONG MALE AND FEMALE AFRICAN AMERICAN ADOLESCENTS.

The current study examined 14 waves of data derived from a large, community-based study of the sexual behavior of impoverished youth between 12 and 17 years of age residing in the Deep South. We used multilevel linear modeling to identify ecological predictors of intercourse frequency and number of sexual partners among gender-specific subsamples. Results indicated that predictors of adolescent sexual behavior differed by both type of sexual behavior and gender.

Change in Age-Specific, Psychosocial Correlates of Risky Sexual Behaviors Among Youth: Longitudinal Findings From a Deep South, High-Risk Sample.

The current study examined psychosocial predictors of change in intercourse frequency and number of sexual partners among youth within a socio-ecological framework and assessed whether these determinants vary by stage of adolescent development. Longitudinal data were derived from a large, community study of adolescent risky behavior among predominantly high-risk, African American youth. Significant predictors of intercourse frequency for early adolescents included age, gender, self-worth, and familial factors; for older youth, age, gender, self-worth, curfews, and sense of community exerted significant effects.

Effect of housing relocation and neighborhood environment on adolescent mental and behavioral health.

Background: This study examined whether relocating from a high-poverty neighborhood to a lower poverty neighborhood as part of a federal housing relocation program (HOPE VI; Housing Opportunities for People Everywhere) had effects on adolescent mental and behavioral health compared to adolescents consistently living in lower poverty neighborhoods.

Methods: Sociodemographic, risk behavior, and neighborhood data were collected from 592 low-income, primarily African-American adolescents and their primary caregivers. Structured psychiatric interviews were conducted with adolescents.

Sensation seeking predicting growth in adolescent problem behaviors.

There is limited literature on the relationship between sensation seeking and adolescent risk behaviors, particularly among African Americans. We tested the association between psychometrically-derived subscales of the Zuckerman Sensation Seeking Scale and the intercepts and slopes of individual growth curves of conduct problems, sexual risk taking, and substance use from ages 13 to 18 years by sex. Boys and girls had different associations between sensation seeking and baseline levels and growth of risk behaviors.

The effects of age, gender, hopelessness, and exposure to violence on sleep disorder symptoms and daytime sleepiness among adolescents in impoverished neighborhoods.

Although sleep problems are associated with negative outcomes among adolescents, studies have not focused on sleep disorder symptoms among adolescents living in impoverished neighborhoods and how sleep problems may be related to two factors common in those environments: hopelessness and exposure to violence. This study used data from the longitudinal Mobile Youth Survey (MYS; N = 11,838, 49% female, 93% African-American) to examine trajectories of sleep problems by age (10-18 years) among impoverished adolescents as a function of gender, feelings of hopelessness, and exposure to violence. The results indicate that sleep problems associated with traumatic stress decline with age, with four notable distinctions.

Associations of adolescent hopelessness and self-worth with pregnancy attempts and pregnancy desire.

Objectives: We examined the associations of pregnancy desire (ambivalence or happiness about a pregnancy in the next year) and recent pregnancy attempts with hopelessness and self-worth among low-income adolescents.

Methods: To evaluate independent associations among the study variables, we conducted gender-stratified multivariable logistic regression analyses with data derived from 2285 sexually experienced 9- to 18-year-old participants in the Mobile Youth Survey between 2006 and 2009.

Results: Fifty-seven percent of youths reported a desire for pregnancy and 9% reported pregnancy attempts.

Effect of OPRM1 and stressful life events on symptoms of major depression in African American adolescents.

Background: In a community sample of low-income African American adolescents, we tested the interactive effects of variation in the mu 1 opioid receptor (OPRM1) gene and the occurrence of stressful life events on symptoms of depression.

Method: Interactive effects of 24 OPRM1 simple nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) and adolescent report of stressful life events on depression were tested using multilevel regressions. SNPs were dummy coded to test both additive and dominate forms of coding.

Predictors of co-occurring risk behavior trajectories among economically disadvantaged African-American youth: contextual and individual factors.

Purpose: African-American youth, particularly those from low-income backgrounds, evidence high rates of negative outcomes associated with three problem behaviors, conduct problems, risky sexual behavior, and substance use. This study used a contextually tailored version of problem behavior theory (PBT) to examine predictors of the simultaneous development of problem behaviors in this specific cultural group.

Methods: Sociocontextual and individual variables representing four PBT predictor categories, controls protection, support protection, models risk, and vulnerability risk, were examined as predictors of co-occurring problem behaviors among economically disadvantaged African-American adolescents (n = 949).