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Optimizing Assessment of Risk and Protection for Diverse Adolescent Outcomes: Do Risk and Protective Factors for Delinquency and Substance Use Also Predict Risky Sexual Behavior?

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Abstract

Assessments of youth risk and protective factors (RPFs) for substance use, delinquency, and violence have been used by communities to identify priorities and target them with prevention interventions. These same RPFs may also predict other youth problems. This study examined the strength and consistency of relationships of 41 ecological RPFs that predict antisocial behavior and substance use with sexual behavior outcomes in a sample of 2150 urban youth in 10th and 12th grade. After adjusting for controls, findings identify significant associations among the majority of community, school, family, peer, and individual risk factors, and family, peer, and individual protective factors, with sexual behavior outcomes, specifying unique associations among multiple factors with risky sex relative to both safe sex and not being sexually active. Prevention programming that targets common predictors for multiple problems may address a broad array of outcomes, including sexual health risk behaviors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Prevention Science Institute, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, USA

    Christopher M. Fleming

  2. Social Development Research Group, School of Social Work, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Nicole Eisenberg, Richard F. Catalano, Rick Kosterman & J. David Hawkins

  3. Center for Health Outcomes and Population Equity, Huntsman Cancer Institute, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA

    Christopher Cambron

  4. Dartington Service Design Lab, Devon, England

    Tim Hobbs

  5. The Annie E. Casey Foundation, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Ilene Berman & Tammi Fleming

  6. School of Social Work, The Institute for Innovation and Implementation, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

    Jessie Watrous

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  1. Christopher M. Fleming
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  2. Nicole Eisenberg
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  3. Richard F. Catalano
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Correspondence to Christopher M. Fleming.

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This work was supported by a grant from the Annie E. Casey Foundation (award number GA-2018-B0289 209.0428).

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Survey administration procedures and study protocols were approved by the University of Washington Institutional Review Board and the local public school district.

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Fleming, C.M., Eisenberg, N., Catalano, R.F. et al. Optimizing Assessment of Risk and Protection for Diverse Adolescent Outcomes: Do Risk and Protective Factors for Delinquency and Substance Use Also Predict Risky Sexual Behavior?. Prev Sci 20, 788–799 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-019-0987-9

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