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A Brief Screening Measure of Adolescent Risk Behavior

Child Psychiatry and Human Development volume 37, pages 325–336 (2007)Cite this article

Abstract

This study examined the factor structure and reliability of a brief but comprehensive measure, the adolescent risk inventory (ARI), designed to assess adolescent risk behaviors and attitudes. Measures assessing demographics and risk behaviors were administered to 134 youth (ages 12–19) in psychiatric treatment. A confirmatory factor analysis of the four attitude scales (HIV Anxiety, HIV Prevention Self-Efficacy, General Distress, and General Risk) revealed excellent goodness of fit statistics. Exploratory factor analysis of the behavior items revealed three behavior factors (Sex Risk, Abuse/Self-Harm, and Acting Out). The preliminary analysis suggested that all subscales had reasonable internal consistency reliability and appeared to be independent measures, rather than part of a single unitary construct. Differences emerged based on gender, sexual activity status, and trauma history. Exploratory regression analyses revealed that, even when controlling for demographic factors and sex risk attitudes (e.g., HIV Prevention Self-Efficacy), Abuse/self-harm behaviors were highly significantly predictive of sex risk. These analyses suggest that the ARI can be useful in quickly identifying the broad range of risk behaviors found among adolescents with psychiatric disorders.

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Acknowledgments

Research supported by NIMH grants R01 MH61149 and R29 MH50416 to the fourth author (LKB).

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Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior-Brown Medical School, Bradley/Hasbro Children’s Research Center-Rhode Island Hospital, One Hoppin Street, Suite 204, Providence, RI, 02903, USA

    Celia M. Lescano, Wendy S. Hadley, Nancy I. Beausoleil, Larry K. Brown, Domenic D’eramo & Abigail Zimskind

Authors
  1. Celia M. Lescano
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  2. Wendy S. Hadley
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  3. Nancy I. Beausoleil
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  4. Larry K. Brown
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  5. Domenic D’eramo
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  6. Abigail Zimskind
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Correspondence to Celia M. Lescano.

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Lescano, C.M., Hadley, W.S., Beausoleil, N.I. et al. A Brief Screening Measure of Adolescent Risk Behavior. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 37, 325–336 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-006-0037-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-006-0037-2

Keywords

  • Adolescents
  • Risk behavior
  • Attitudes
  • Sexual activity
  • Screening measure