| Abstract: | A longitudinal structural equation model was tested to examine relationships among adolescent alcohol misuse, sexual risk-taking behaviors, parental monitoring, and demographic variables. Participants (N=561) were between the ages of 15-18 years old and were representative of the Buffalo, New York, metropolitan area. Two waves (separated by a year) of a larger longitudinal project were used. At each of these waves, ongoing (i.e., past year) alcohol misuse and sexual risk taking were measured. Age of onset of drunkenness and of sexual intercourse were also obtained. Among the major results were that later onset of drunkenness diminished future levels of alcohol misuse and sexual risk taking and that parental monitoring mitigated later levels of alcohol misuse. Also, single-parent family structure was directly related to sexual risk taking and indirectly related to greater alcohol misuse through lowered monitoring. Multiple-group modeling revealed that the essential features of the model were consistent across participant race and gender. |
