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Sexual Activity and Problem Behaviors among Black, Urban Adolescents
Author(s) -
Ensminger Margaret E.
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.103
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1467-8624
pISSN - 0009-3920
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8624.1990.tb03585.x
Subject(s) - psychology , deviance (statistics) , developmental psychology , sexual behavior , human factors and ergonomics , injury prevention , substance use , suicide prevention , poison control , clinical psychology , medicine , medical emergency , statistics , mathematics
This article focuses on whether sexual activity is best considered in the same paradigm as adolescent substance use and assault or separately. Among black, inner‐city adolescents ( N = 705), followed longitudinally since first grade, 3 questions were examined: (1) how these 3 behaviors co‐occur, (2) their early family and school precursors, and (3) their relations with adolescent school behavior and parental supervision. The 3 most frequent patterns were compared: no problem behaviors, only sexual activity, and the combination of sexual activity, heavy substance use, and/or assault. In general, the multiproblem adolescents differed from the other adolescents in their behavior and parental supervision. While sex‐only males were similar to the no‐problem males, sex‐only females differed from the no‐problem girls in their family origins. These results suggest that by examining adolescent behaviors in their co‐occurring combinations in epidemiologically defined populations, variations in pathways to deviance can be better understood.