Mediators of Sexual Revictimization Risk in Adult Sexual Assault Victims

This study examined sexual risk behaviors and sexual refusal assertiveness in relationship to child sexual abuse, emotion dysregulation, and adult sexual revictimization. Path analyses of 1,094 survivors who had sex in the past year were done to examine sexual risk behavior and sexual refusal assertiveness mediational pathways by which child sexual abuse severity and emotion dysregulation may affect revictimization over one year in adult female sexual assault survivors. Exchanging sex for money and sexual refusal assertiveness were significantly associated with emotion dysregulation, whereas exchanging sex for money, and not sexual refusal assertiveness, was only significantly related to child sexual abuse severity. Both exchanging sex for money and sex refusal assertiveness mediated the relationship between emotion dysregulation and adult sexual revictimization. Exchanging sex for money mediated the child sexual abuse severity-revictimization relationship. These findings demonstrate the importance of considering both risky and protective sexual behaviors in research and prevention programming that address sexual revictimization in women.     

Development of Sexual Expectancies among Adolescents: Contributions by Parents,Peers and the Media

To expand the scant research on sexual expectancies development among non–sexually active adolescents, we examined the relationship between adolescents' exposure to four socializing agents—mother/female guardian, father/male guardian, peers, and television programs with high sexual content—and their endorsement of four sexual expectancies: social benefit, pleasure, social risk, and health risk. Data are from Waves 2 and 3 of a three-wave annual longitudinal study conducted among California adolescents, the majority of whom were not sexually active (N = 914, 84%). Structural equation models were conducted to examine cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between the socializing agents and the sexual expectancies. Cross-sectional results indicate associations between peer sexual communication and social benefit, pleasure, and social risk expectancies. A positive association was found between exposure to music videos and social benefit expectancies, and a negative association was found between exposure to music videos and health risk expectancies. Longitudinal results suggest that communication with peers positively predicted pleasure expectancies and negatively predicted social risk expectancies. No other socializing agents were associated with any sexual expectancies. An invariance test found that significant correlations were similar across the different age groups. Results suggest that efforts to support positive sexual decision making among non–sexually active adolescents should target peer sexual communication.     

Early initiation of marijuana use,education, and earnings of young adults

ABSTRACT

We estimate the relationships between early initiation of marijuana use (i.e., during middle school or high school), educational attainment and performance, and earnings as a young adult. Grounded in a developmental stages theoretical framework, results indicate that early initiation of marijuana use is negatively related to both educational outcomes and earnings, but the estimated relationships for earnings are diminished in models that control for education and other socioeconomic characteristics. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that early marijuana use indirectly affects young adult earnings through its negative effects on educational outcomes. Our results also indicate that early marijuana initiators who grow up in economically disadvantaged families may have worse educational outcomes than their counterparts who do not grow up with economic disadvantages. Reduced education and earnings among young adults could increase the likelihood of the individual and their family suffering economic hardships later in life.     

Longitudinal Associations Among Religiousness,Delay Discounting,and Substance Use Initiation in Early Adolescence

Prior research indicates that religiousness is related negatively to adolescent health risk behaviors, yet how such protective effects operate is not well understood. This study examined the longitudinal associations among organizational and personal religiousness, delay discounting, and substance use initiation (alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana use). The sample was comprised of 106 early adolescents (10–13 years of age, 52% female) who were not using substances at Time 1. Path analyses suggested that high levels of personal religiousness at Time 1 were related to low levels of substance use at Time 2 (2.4 years later), mediated by low levels of delay discounting. Delay discounting appears to be an important contributor to the protective effect of religiousness on the development of substance use among adolescents.     

Social skills, competence, and drug refusal efficacy as predictors of adolescent alcohol use

Numerous alcohol and drug abuse prevention trials have included social resistance training as a strategy for reducing early-stage adolescent alcohol use. Evaluations of these trials has shown them to be moderately effective, although the precise impact of the resistance training in comparison to other programmatic features has not been clearly identified. The current study examined the extent to which assertiveness and related social skills, personal competence (perceived cognitive mastery), and refusal efficacy predict alcohol involvement. Males were at greater risk for poor refusal skills and reported higher alcohol involvement. Cross-sectionally, youth characterized by poor social skill development reported lower refusal efficacy, lower grades, poor competence, and more alcohol use. Poor refusal efficacy was associated with more risk-taking, lower grades, less competence, and more alcohol use. Longitudinally, both poor refusal skills and risk-taking were associated with higher alcohol use. High personal competence was associated with lower alcohol use in both the eighth and tenth grades, but had no long-term effects on alcohol use. Findings highlight the close interplay between perceived competence and refusal skill efficacy, both of which should be included as essential components of school-based prevention strategies.     

Linking Self‐Regulation and Risk Proneness to Risky Sexual Behavior: Pathways through Peer Pressure and Early Substance Use

The linkages between self‐regulation in childhood, risk proneness in early adolescence, and risky sexual behavior in mid‐adolescence were examined in a cohort of children (N=518) from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. The possible mediating role of two early adolescent variables (substance use and negative peer pressure) was also examined. Self‐regulation was assessed by maternal report at ages 8–9, and risk proneness, comprising aspects of sensation seeking and decision making, was assessed by adolescent self‐report at ages 12–13. Structural equation models predicting risky sexual behavior at ages 16–17 indicated that self‐regulation operated partly through early adolescent substance use, whereas risk proneness operated through early adolescent substance use and negative peer pressure. The overall model did not differ significantly for boys and girls, although there were gender differences in the strength of particular paths. These long‐term longitudinal results support the importance of early self‐regulation and risk proneness in setting the stage for adolescent sexual risk taking and implicate substance use and negative peer pressure as processes through which risk proneness and poor self‐regulation lead to risky sexual behavior.     

Expectancies specific to condom use mediate the alcohol and sexual risk relationship

The present study tested the role of alcohol expectancies for condom use in mediating the alcohol and risky sex relationship. Expectancies for condom use are specific anticipations for alcohol's effect on one's ability to use a condom. College students (N = 563) reported on beliefs, intentions and actual sexual and drinking behavior. Among the sexually active, alcohol was directly related to future intention to use a condom in drinking situations for men, but not for women. In the men, alcohol expectancies for condom use mediated the relationship between drinking and condom intention. Beliefs that alcohol negatively impacts one's ability to use condoms were associated with more drinking and lower intentions to use a condom. These expectancies may help explain how alcohol affects risky sex in men. Gender differences and implications are discussed.     

Age differences in alcohol and cocaine expectancies and attitudes

Positive and negative expectancies regarding the behavioral effects of alcohol and cocaine were assessed and used to predict attitudes toward their use across four age groups (5-7, 8-10, 11-14, and 18-25, N = 121). Regardless of gender and minority status, children and early adolescents appeared to overgeneralize their beliefs about alcohol to a less familiar drug, cocaine, perceiving the effects of the two drugs similarly. Only college students differentiated between drugs, perceiving cocaine as less likely than alcohol to produce drunkenness and more likely to have stimulant and elation/empowerment effects. With age and other expectancies controlled, expectancy of drunkenness was the best predictor of disapproval of alcohol use; attitudes toward cocaine use were unrelated to expectancies but became more negative with age. Drug prevention programs should rest on data regarding children's preexisting beliefs about the consequences of drug use and should help them understand that different drugs (for example, stimulants and depressants) pose different dangers.     

Family risk and resiliency factors, substance use, and the drug resistance process in adolescence

Recent approaches to drug prevention have emphasized risk and resiliency factors. Two models have been developed to explain these factors, one which posits that separate elements make up each set and the other which posits that a single factor can be either a risk or a resiliency factor depending on, for example, if it is present (resiliency) or absent (risk). This study tested these models and attempted to compare the effects of risk and resiliency across gender and ethnicity. Results support the model in which risk and resiliency are discrete sets of factors and demonstrate that overall resiliency factors play a larger role than risk factors in substance use and drug resistance processes. However, gender proved to be an important moderator of these effects. For adolescent males, resiliency has an indirect effect on overall substance use through age of first use, while risk has a direct effect on overall substance use. For adolescent females, resiliency has a direct effect on overall substance use and risk has an indirect effect through age of first use. This indicates that while early interventions are important for both genders, resiliency factors must be dealt with before initiation of substance use for males. Findings did not differ substantially across ethnicity, although the small African-American sample size may have limited power to detect differences.     

Expectancies specific to condom use mediate the alcohol and sexual risk relationship

The present study tested the role of alcohol expectancies for condom use in mediating the alcohol and risky sex relationship. Expectancies for condom use are specific anticipations for alcohol's effect on one's ability to use a condom. College students (N = 563) reported on beliefs, intentions and actual sexual and drinking behavior. Among the sexually active, alcohol was directly related to future intention to use a condom in drinking situations for men, but not for women. In the men, alcohol expectancies for condom use mediated the relationship between drinking and condom intention. Beliefs that alcohol negatively impacts one's ability to use condoms were associated with more drinking and lower intentions to use a condom. These expectancies may help explain how alcohol affects risky sex in men. Gender differences and implications are discussed.     

Ethnic identity, neighborhood risk, and adolescent drug and sex attitudes and refusal efficacy: the urban African American girls' experience

This study examined the impact of ethnic identity and neighborhood risk on drug and sex attitudes and refusal efficacy among early adolescent urban African American females (n = 175). The model also predicted a moderating relationship of ethnic identity on neighborhood risk for drug and sex attitudes and refusal efficacy. Data were collected as part of a larger drug education program and analyzed via hierarchical multiple regression. The analyses controlled for household structure and menarche. Results indicated a direct relationship of higher ethnic identity and higher sexual refusal efficacy, higher disapproval of drug use, and lowered intentions to use drugs. Neighborhood risk was directly related to lower disapproval of drug use. There was a small moderating effect of ethnic identity on neighborhood risk for intention to use drugs. Findings provide support for prevention programs for African American youth that seek to reduce risk behaviors by increasing ethnic identity, particularly in low resource communities.     

College Women's Sexual Decision Making: Cognitive Mediation of Alcohol Expectancy Effects

Abstract

Objective: Alcohol has been linked to a variety of risky sexual practices, including inconsistent condom use. Due to the high rates of alcohol consumption among underage college women, greater understanding of the role of alcohol in young women's sexual decision making is warranted. Participants and Methods: Female underage (18- to 20-year-old) social drinkers (N = 94) participated in an experiment in which they projected themselves into a written hypothetical sexual situation with a new partner. One half of the situations portrayed alcohol consumption; one half did not involve alcohol consumption. Their appraisals of the situation's sexual potential, impelling and inhibiting cognitions, and sexual behavior intentions were assessed. Results: Results revealed that alcohol's expectancy effects on young women's unprotected sexual intentions were mediated by their cognitive appraisals of the situation. Conclusions: These findings indicate that alcohol expectancies and their influence on women's sexual decisions should be incorporated into sexual risk reduction efforts.     

Outcome Expectancies and Risk Behaviors in Maltreated Adolescents

This study examined positive and negative outcome expectancies for risk behaviors, and their association with engagement in risk behaviors, in a sample of 149 maltreated adolescents. “Outcome Expectancies” are evaluative social cognitions about what will occur as a consequence of one's actions. Risk behaviors and outcome expectancies for substance use, sexual behavior, and delinquency were assessed. In all regression models, positive expectancies were significantly related to risk behaviors while negative expectancies, with one exception, were not significantly related. In three of four regression models, significant interactions were found between positive and negative expectancies in predicting risk behaviors. The nature of the interaction differed by type of risk behavior. Beyond demonstrating associations between outcome expectancies and risk behaviors in a maltreated sample, this paper contributes to the study of social information processing by demonstrating significant interactions between positive and negative expectancies.     

Decision making processes and alcohol use among college students

Abstract

Objective: The neurobiological model of risk-taking and the dual-process model of decision making each provide possible explanations of risky behavior among youth, but their interconnections have rarely been explored, especially among college students, a time of increased alcohol use. Participants: n?=?382; Mage?=?19.25, SD?=?1.33. Method: Participants completed a survey about their deliberative and intuitive decision making style (based on the dual-process model), their socioemotional and cognitive control processes (based on the neurobiological model), and alcohol use. Results: Structural equation modeling showed that dual-process variables and neurobiological variables were positively related. Deliberative decision making and cognitive control were negatively related to alcohol use whereas intuitive decision making was not. Comment: Discussion focuses on the integration of theoretical models with real-world health behaviors and considers implications of the current findings in terms of prevention and intervention to reduce drinking among college students.     

The relationship among childhood risk and protective factors,racial microaggression and ethnic identity,and academic self-efficacy and antisocial behavior in young adulthood

We examined how childhood and adolescent risk and protective factors and perceptions of racial microaggression and ethnic identity during young adulthood contributed to academic self-efficacy, substance abuse, and criminal intentions of 409 undergraduate students enrolled in a public urban university. Participants (mean age — 24) completed a web-based survey subsequent to a stratified, random sampling procedure. Findings from structural equation models revealed that risk factors reflecting problem behavior during childhood were associated with higher levels of substance use and criminal intentions during adulthood. The early protective factor of school engagement was positively related to academic self-efficacy and negatively related to criminal intentions in young adults. Racial microaggression was inversely related, while ethnic identity was positively associated, with academic self-efficacy among young adults after controlling for the influence of child and adolescent risk and protective factors. Implications for advancing interventions that address the influence of child and adolescent risk and protective factors, racial microaggression, and ethnic identity on academic and behavioral outcomes for young adults are noted.     

Risk and Protective Factors for Early Substance Use Initiation: A Longitudinal Study of Mexican‐Origin Youth

Substance use initiation in adolescence is a critical issue, given its association with substance dependency and associated problems in adulthood. However, due to the dearth of fine‐grained longitudinal studies, the factors associated with early initiation are poorly understood, especially in minority youth. The present study examined substance use initiation in a sample of Mexican‐origin youth (n = 674) assessed annually from age 10 to 16. Using discrete‐time survival analyses, we found that initiation escalated rapidly from late childhood to adolescence, and we identified a wide range of factors, from the individual to the cultural level of analysis, that significantly increased or decreased risk for early initiation. These findings have important implications for programs aimed at preventing early substance use by Mexican‐origin youth.     

The role of perception in the intention to change the family financial situation

The study investigates factors associated with the individual intentions to change the family financial situation of 337 farm respondents. The hypotheses are that intentions to change are influenced by (a) resource flexibility or constraints existing at the time of the decision situation, including off-farm employment, education, age, and household size, and (b) perceptual factors of perceived income adequacy, locus of control, degree of discrepancy between standard and level of the family financial situation, and dissatisfaction or satisfaction with the discrepancy. Older respondents and those experiencing more external control are less likely to intend to change. Younger respondents and those who perceive their incomes as more adequate are more likely to perceive that they have control over their situation. The lower the perceived income adequacy, the greater the discrepancy between standard and level of the family financial situation and the lower the satisfaction with the discrepancy. Significant indirect effects were consistent with theoretical expectations.Research was supported by the Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station Projects 52-055, 52-054, and 52-058 and the Minnesota Extension Service. The authors wish to thank Jean W. Bauer, Ph.D., for research collaboration and Susan Keskinen and Cathy Schultz for research assistance.Her research interests include social, economic, and technical decision processes, discrepancies between standards and levels, and the interrelationship of work and family roles, particularly for farm women. Her Ph.D. is from Iowa State University.Her research interests in family resource management theory include social decision making processes and social decision rules, family life quality, and the economic consequences of divorce. Her Ph.D. is from Michigan State University.     

Race differences in antisocial behaviors and attitudes and early initiation of substance use.

This article examines racial differences in self-reported delinquency, school trouble, antisocial attitudes, and toughness and in teacher-rated aggressive and inattentive behaviors among fifth grade black, white, and Asian American subjects. Also examined are the relationships of these variables to substance initiation within each racial group. Controlling for socio-economic status, racial groups differed from one another in self-reported delinquency, school trouble and toughness, and in teacher-rated aggressiveness and inattention. Antisocial behavior and attitudes were stronger predictors of substance initiation for Asian American than for black and white children. For white children both self-reported and teacher-rated behavior were significantly related to substance initiation. For black children, only self-reported antisocial behavior, and for Asian American children only self-reported delinquent behavior and attitudes predicted substance initiation. Implications for prevention and research are discussed.     

Adolescent gambling and problem gambling: examination of an extended theory of planned behaviour

Adolescent problem gambling is acknowledged as a public health concern. To better understand adolescent gambling and problem gambling behaviour, the present study investigated the relationships between psychological correlates of gambling frequency and problem gambling using an extended theory of planned behaviour (TPB; i.e. intentions, attitudes, subjective norms, perceptions of behavioural control) that includes negative anticipated emotions as a factor associated with gambling intentions. Four hundred and nineteen high school students were surveyed in the Montreal (Canada) region. The findings generally support the applicability of an extended TPB model for explaining gambling behaviour frequency and gambling problems among adolescents. The results reveal that negative anticipated emotions, attitudes and perceptions of behavioural control influence gambling intentions. The results further reveal that intentions and attitudes have a direct relationship with gambling frequency, while intentions and perceptions of behavioural control are directly related to problem gambling behaviours. These findings suggest that adolescent problem gambling prevention and intervention efforts should consider targeting negative anticipated emotions and other TPB components in order to postpone initiation to gambling (a risk factor for problem gambling) and to promote gambling decision-making.     

Decision‐Making Styles,Career Decision Self‐Efficacy,and Career Adaptability Among High School Students

We investigated the relationships between decision‐making styles, career decision self‐efficacy, and career adaptability among high school students. We also sought to determine whether gender moderates the relationships among these three constructs. A total of 216 Serbian final‐year high school students responded to career adaptability and decision‐making measures. Results of structural equation modeling showed that career decision self‐efficacy mediates a positive relationship between the rational and intuitive styles and a negative relationship between the dependent style and career adaptability. The rational style only had a direct effect on career adaptability. Gender moderated one path—a regression weight of self‐efficacy on career adaptability. For male students, self‐efficacy was not a significant predictor of career adaptability. The results suggest that career counselors might approach students differently depending on students' gender and that the role of gender in career decision‐making and adaptability processes should be investigated further.