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Author: Peterson, N. Andrew
Resulting in 3 citations.
1. Agre, Lynn A.
Peterson, N. Andrew
Risk Prone or Risk Adverse: Sensation Seeking and Adolescent Health Risk Behavior
Presented: San Diego, CA, American Public Health Association (APHA) 136th Annual Meeting and Exposition, October 25-28, 2008
Cohort(s): NLSY79 Young Adult
Publisher: American Public Health Association
Keyword(s): CESD (Depression Scale); Neighborhood Effects; Parent-Child Relationship/Closeness; Parenting Skills/Styles; Pearlin Mastery Scale; Risk-Taking; Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) (see Self-Esteem); Substance Use

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

This paper examines how adolescent risk proneness (sensation seeking) in conjunction with psychosocial factors (mastery, self-esteem and depression) and environmental influences (parenting and neighborhood quality) predict likelihood to engage in deleterious health risk behaviors, i.e. alcohol, tobacco use and sexual activity. Using the NLSY 1998 young adult cohort (ages 14-21), scales based on Rosenberg self-esteem, Pearlin mastery and CES-D depression measures are formulated, together with neighborhood and parent-child relationship assessments, and Zuckerman risk propensity self-evaluation (all with Cronbach's alpha reliability =.7) to test the multivariate relationship on the outcome severity indexes of high tobacco and alcohol utilization, and sexual involvement. In preliminary models, discriminant and MANCOVA analyses (n=354) are applied to elucidate profiles of adolescents at higher and lower risk of early substance use and sexual behavior initiation. These statistical classification methods, then, reveal that younger white males with higher self-esteem, higher mastery, higher depressive symptoms, but poorer parenting and lower quality neighborhoods, have higher self-rated risk proneness scores, indicating they are more likely to engage in conduct detrimental to health (with significance less than .05). Similarly, younger black females with higher self-esteem, lower mastery, lower depression and poorer parenting and lower neighborhood quality also have greater propensity to appraise themselves as risk prone. Indeed, interaction between socio-emotional environment and sensation seeking during teen years can set the stage for later-life deleterious health outcomes. Thus, risky behavior patterns established in early adulthood have implications for a life course trajectory of co-morbid mental and physical conditions in middle and older adulthood.
Bibliography Citation
Agre, Lynn A. and N. Andrew Peterson. "Risk Prone or Risk Adverse: Sensation Seeking and Adolescent Health Risk Behavior." Presented: San Diego, CA, American Public Health Association (APHA) 136th Annual Meeting and Exposition, October 25-28, 2008.
2. Agre, Lynn A.
Peterson, N. Andrew
Brady, James
Mediational Effects of Sensation Seeking on Adolescent Health Risk Behaviors by Mother's Educational Attainment
Presented: Philadelphia, PA, American Public Health Association (APHA) 137th Annual Meeting and Exposition, November 2009
Cohort(s): NLSY79 Young Adult
Publisher: American Public Health Association
Keyword(s): Adolescent Behavior; Adolescent Sexual Activity; Alcohol Use; CESD (Depression Scale); Family Structure; Health, Mental/Psychological; Mothers, Education; Neighborhood Effects; Risk-Taking

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

This study examines if self-rated risk perception (risk proneness) mediates the effects of health behavior determinants, which include depression, parenting and neighborhood quality on health behaviors. While peer pressure could be a measure of influence, little research has explored the effect of parental education, especially maternal education as a protective factor/social support mechanism in predicting health behavior outcomes. This research utilizes a national representative sample, the NLSY 1998 Young Adult cohort, to demonstrate the mediational role of risk proneness – how environment influences cognition – in safeguarding against adolescent deleterious health choices. Self-rated risk proneness, in conjunction with the psychosocial and environmental factors, is evaluated in path analysis (n=1786) as a mediating step to engaging in alcohol and tobacco use and sexual behavior. Results reveal that depressive symptoms are an underlying factor in risk proneness (higher sensation seeking likelihood) among white adolescents whose mothers have lower educational attainment, particularly females engaging in concomitant alcohol use and sexual risk taking. However, depression has no association with risk proneness among African American adolescents whose mothers have higher educational attainment or lower educational attainment. Yet, path analysis does demonstrate, through temporal ordering, that risk proneness (sensation seeking) is a mediator in the sequence to alcohol use and sexual risk taking among white adolescents of mothers with both higher and lower educational attainment, and among African American adolescents of mothers with lower educational attainment. These group differences in mother's educational attainment contribute to the development of targeted community interventions among adolescents in varied neighborhood contexts.
Bibliography Citation
Agre, Lynn A., N. Andrew Peterson and James Brady. "Mediational Effects of Sensation Seeking on Adolescent Health Risk Behaviors by Mother's Educational Attainment." Presented: Philadelphia, PA, American Public Health Association (APHA) 137th Annual Meeting and Exposition, November 2009.
3. Agre, Lynn A.
Peterson, N. Andrew
Brady, James
Sensation Seeking Risk Profiles of Adolescent Alcohol Use and Sexual Behavior
Presented: Philadelphia, PA, American Public Health Association (APHA) 137th Annual Meeting and Exposition, November 2009
Cohort(s): NLSY79 Young Adult
Publisher: American Public Health Association
Keyword(s): Adolescent Behavior; Adolescent Sexual Activity; Alcohol Use; CESD (Depression Scale); Family Structure; Health, Mental/Psychological; Neighborhood Effects; Risk-Taking

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Based on the Bronfenbrenner Ecological framework and using the 1998 National Longitudinal on Youth Young Adult Survey, this study examines psychosocial and environmental factors among youth ages 14 to 21 years at the individual and familial level that predispose teens to self-identify as high versus low risk. Multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) is used to investigate the mean differences of low and high risk proneness scores among adolescents on multiple outcomes or dependent variables i.e. alcohol use and sexual activity based on the covariates of neighborhood quality, perceived closeness between parents and depressive illness symptoms. MANCOVA results(n=1379)show significant differences between those teens with high alcohol severity use in past 30 days versus sexual risk taking on all factors except for perceived parental closeness, gender and race. Discriminant analysis was also performed to determine risk group profiles. Findings reveal that those adolescents who perceive themselves as risk prone (high likelihood to engage in sensation) are younger, white males, who report worse perceived parental closeness (low agreement on rules), and rate their neighborhood quality as low. In contrast, those adolescents who view themselves as risk adverse (lower likelihood to engage in sensation seeking) are older African American females, with less depressive symptoms, higher perceived parental closeness, but lower quality neighborhoods. Assessment of risk profiles are discussed in the context of developing targeted interventions and evaluation effectiveness of such program strategies.
Bibliography Citation
Agre, Lynn A., N. Andrew Peterson and James Brady. "Sensation Seeking Risk Profiles of Adolescent Alcohol Use and Sexual Behavior." Presented: Philadelphia, PA, American Public Health Association (APHA) 137th Annual Meeting and Exposition, November 2009.