Mark S. Turbin

Protective factors in adolescent health behavior.

The role of psychosocial protective factors in adolescent health-enhancing behaviors--healthy diet, regular exercise, adequate sleep, good dental hygiene, and seatbelt use--was investigated among 1,493 Hispanic, White, and Black high school students in a large, urban school district. Both proximal (health-related) and distal (conventionality-related) protective factors have significant positive relations with health-enhancing behavior and with the development of health-enhancing behavior. In addition, in cross-sectional analyses, protection was shown to moderate risk. Key proximal protective factors are value on health, perceived effects of health-compromising behavior, and parents who model health behavior. Key distal protective factors are positive orientation to school, friends who model conventional behavior, involvement in prosocial activities, and church attendance. The findings suggest the importance of individual differences on a dimension of conventionality-unconventionality. Strengthening both proximal and distal protective factors may help to promote healthful behaviors in adolescence.

Adolescent Problem Behavior in China and the United States: A Cross-National Study of Psychosocial Protective Factors

An explanatory model of adolescent problem behavior (problem drinking, cigarette smoking, and general delinquency) based on protective and risk factors in the individual and in 4 social contexts (family, peer group, school, and neighborhood) is employed in school-based samples from the People’s Republic of China (N 51,739) and the United States (N 51,596). Despite lower prevalence of the problem behaviors in the Chinese sample, especially for girls, a substantial account of problem behavior is provided by the same protective and risk factors in both countries and for both genders. Protection is generally higher in the Chinese sample than in the U.S. sample, but in both samples protection also moderates the impact of risk. Despite mean differences in psychosocial protective and risk factors, as well as in problem behavior, in the 2 samples—differences that may reflect societal variation— the explanatory model has, to a large extent, cross-national generality.

The Influence of Social Involvement, Neighborhood Aesthetics, and Community Garden Participation on Fruit and Vegetable Consumption

OBJECTIVES We considered the relationship between an urban adult populations fruit and vegetable consumption and several selected social and psychological processes, beneficial aesthetic experiences, and garden participation. METHODS We conducted a population-based survey representing 436 residents across 58 block groups in Denver, Colorado, from 2006 to 2007. We used multilevel statistical models to evaluate the survey data. RESULTS Neighborhood aesthetics, social involvement, and community garden participation were significantly associated with fruit and vegetable intake. Community gardeners consumed fruits and vegetables 5.7 times per day, compared with home gardeners (4.6 times per day) and nongardeners (3.9 times per day). Moreover, 56% of community gardeners met national recommendations to consume fruits and vegetables at least 5 times per day, compared with 37% of home gardeners and 25% of nongardeners. CONCLUSIONS Our study results shed light on neighborhood processes that affect food-related behaviors and provides insights about the potential of community gardens to affect these behaviors. The qualities intrinsic to community gardens make them a unique intervention that can narrow the divide between people and the places where food is grown and increase local opportunities to eat better.

The Role of Social Contexts in Adolescence: Context Protection and Context Risk in the United States and China

A theoretical framework about protective factors (models protection, controls protection, support protection) and risk factors (models risk, opportunity risk, vulnerability risk) was employed to articulate the content of 4 key contexts of adolescent life—family, peers, school, and neighborhood—in a cross-national study of problem behavior among 7th-, 8th-, and 9th-grade adolescents in the United States (n = 1,596) and the Peoples Republic of China (n = 1,739). Results were very similar in both samples and across genders. Measures of protection and risk in each of the 4 contexts uniquely contributed to the account of problem behavior involvement even when individual-level measures of protection and risk were controlled. Context protection was also shown to moderate individual-level risk and protection in 1 context moderated risk within that context and in other contexts. Controls protection—protection provided by rules, regulations, and expected sanctions for transgression from adults and peers—was the most important measure of context protection in all but 1 context. The family and peer contexts were the most influential in the U.S. sample, and the peer and school contexts were the most influential in the Chinese sample; the neighborhood context was least influential in both samples.

Adolescent cigarette smoking: health-related behavior or normative transgression?

Relations among measures of adolescent behavior were examined to determine whether cigarette smoking fits into a structure of problem behaviors—behaviors that involve normative transgression—or a structure of health-related behaviors, or both. In an ethnically and socioeconomically diverse sample of 1782 male and female high school adolescents, four first-order problem behavior latent variables—sexual intercourse experience, alcohol abuse, illicit drug use, and delinquency—were established and together were shown to reflect a second-order latent variable of problem behavior. Four first-order latent variables of health-related behaviors—unhealthy dietary habits, sedentary behavior, unsafe behavior, and poor dental hygiene—were also established and together were shown to reflect a second-order latent variable of health-compromising behavior. The structure of relations among those latent variables was modeled. Cigarette smoking had a significant and substantial loading only on the problem-behavior latent variable; its loading on the health-compromising behavior latent variable was essentially zero. Adolescent cigarette smoking relates strongly and directly to problem behaviors and only indirectly, if at all, to health-compromising behaviors. Interventions to prevent or reduce adolescent smoking should attend more to factors that influence problem behaviors.

Protective and risk factors in health-enhancing behavior among adolescents in China and the United States: does social context matter?

An explanatory model of adolescent health-enhancing behavior based on protective and risk factors at the individual level and in 4 social contexts was used in a study of school-based samples from the Peoples Republic of China (n = 1,739) and the United States (n = 1,596). A substantial account of variation in health-enhancing behavior--and of its developmental change over time--was provided by the model for boys and girls, and for the 3 grade cohorts, in both samples. In both samples, social context protective and risk factors accounted for more unique variance than did individual-level protective and risk factors, and context protection moderated both contextual and individual-level risk. Models protection and controls protection were of particular importance in the explanatory account.

Problem Behavior Theory and the Dynamics of Protection and Risk

The relation of psychosocial protective factors to involvement in problem behavior—alcohol and drug use, delinquency, and sexual precocity—was investigated in a longitudinal study of 7th-, 8th-, and 9th-grade adolescents in a large, urban school district. Protective factors were drawn from the personality, the perceived environment, and the behavior systems of Problem Behavior Theory. The findings show a significant inverse relation between protection and problem behavior involvement. There is a significant interaction between protection and risk in the prediction of problem behavior: Protection is shown to moderate the relation of risk to problem behavior. Protective factors are also significant predictors of change in adolescent problem behavior over time. Direct effects of protection are consistent across all gender and racial/ethnic subgroups; moderator effects are evident for female, White, and Hispanic subgroups only.

Explaining Developmental Change in Health Behavior in US and Chinese Adolescents

This chapter reports a cross-national study of developmental change in health-enhancing behavior—healthy eating and regular exercise—among adolescents in China and the United States. The application of a conceptual framework comprising psychosocial and behavioral protective and risk factors—both proximal and distal and at both the individual and social contextual level—is shown to provide a substantial account of variation in change in those behaviors over a 2-year interval. The explanatory account has generality across gender, the 3 grade cohorts, and most importantly, across the 2 markedly diverse societies.

Problem Behavior Theory and Success Despite Disadvantage

The role of psychosocial risk and protective factors in successful adolescent development under circumstances of socioeconomic disadvantage was investigated among 1,638 high school students in a large, urban school district. Success referred to two important developmental tasks: engagement in school and avoiding more than minimal involvement in problem behavior. Significant negative effects on success were found for disadvantage and for risk factors, whereas protective factors had significant positive effects. In addition, protection moderated the effects of risk, especially for more disadvantaged youth. Further, in longitudinal analyses, both risk and protective factors accounted for significant variance in change in successful outcomes over time and development. Key risk factors are Low Expectations for Success, Low Self-Esteem, Hopelessness, and having Friends as Models for Problem Behavior. Key protective factors are Attitudinal Intolerance of Deviance, Positive Orientation to Health, and having Friends as Models for Conventional Behavior. Strengthening protective factors, as well as reducing risk, may enhance successful development, especially in disadvantaged life circumstances.

The Role of Protection in Adolescent Health Behavior

The role of psychosocial protective factors in adolescent health-enhancing behaviors—healthy diet, regular exercise, adequate sleep, good dental hygiene, and seatbelt use—was investigated among 1,493 Hispanic, White, and Black high school students in a large, urban school district. Both proximal (health-related) and distal (conventionality-related) protective factors have significant positive relations with health-enhancing behavior and with the development of health-enhancing behavior. In addition, in cross-sectional analyses, protection was shown to moderate risk. Key proximal protective factors are value on health, perceived effects of health-compromising behavior, and parents who model health behavior. Key distal protective factors are positive orientation to school, friends who model conventional behavior, involvement in prosocial activities, and church attendance. The findings suggest the importance of individual differences on a dimension of conventionality-unconventionality.