Ethnicity, Gender, and Clustered Risk Behaviors in Adolescents

In
addition to alcohol use, a number of other risk behaviors
(e.g., drug use, fighting) are common among adolescents
and can cause substantial health consequences. To examine
possible interrelationships between these risk behaviors
(e.g., co-occurrence), researchers analyzed data from
a population-based national sample of 3183 African American
and European American adolescents who had been surveyed
annually for 4 years until age 18.

Using “latent class models” to characterize health risk behaviors,
researchers found several patterns:

• Two percent of the sample
  had all risk behaviors (marijuana use, early sexual
  initiation, alcohol use, smoking, fighting, and truancy)
  while 27% had none.
• African American men were
  more likely—while African American women were less likely—than
  others to be in the risk group with the highest prevalence
  of all risk behaviors (18% of African American men,
  11% of European American men, 9% of European American
  women, and 5% of African American women).
• African Americans were
  very likely to be in a risk group with a higher prevalence
  of early sexual initiation and a lower prevalence of
  substance use. The opposite was true for European Americans.

Comments:

This
study suggests that risk behaviors often cluster together
in adolescents, and that specific patterns may differ
by ethnicity. When one risk behavior is identified, clinicians
should be open to finding and addressing other risk behaviors.

Richard Saitz, MD, MPH

Reference:

Weden MM, Zabin LS. Gender and ethnic differences in the co-occurrence of adolescent risk behaviors. Ethnicity and Health. 2005;10(3):213-234.