Richard Jessor

Successful adolescent development among youth in high-risk settings.

A new, interdisciplinary paradigm is emerging in developmental psychology. It includes contextual as well as individual variation and is more consonant with the complexity of adolescent behavior and development than traditional research paradigms. Social problems, such as poverty and racial discrimination, and the ways that young people negotiate adolescence successfully, are objects of research. A research program sponsored by the MacArthur Foundation, that embodies the new paradigm, is described.

Psychosocial Correlates of Marijuana Use and Problem Drinking in a National Sample of Adolescents

Personality, environmental, and behavioral variables representing psychosocial risk factors for adolescent problem behavior were assessed in a 1974 national sample study of over 10,000 junior and senior high school students. Significant correlations were found with marijuana use, and the relationships held across differences in age, sex, and ethnic group membership. Greater involvement in marijuana use was associated with greater value on independence than on academic achievement, lower expectations for academic achievement, lesser religiosity, greater tolerance of deviance, less compatibility between friends and parents, greater influence of friends relative to parents, greater models and support for problem behavior, greater actual involvement in other problem behaviors such as drunkenness, and less involvement in conventional behavior such as attending church. Multiple regression analyses show that this pattern of psychosocial correlates accounts for over 50 per cent of the variation in marijuana use. The pattern is nearly identical to the pattern that accounts for problem drinking in these same adolescents. The similarity of the patterns of psychosocial risk, and the substantial correlations of marijuana use with problem drinking and with other problem behaviors, suggest that marijuana use is best seen as part of a syndrome of adolescent problem behavior. (Am J Public Health 70:604- 613,1980.)

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.

Adolescent health behavior and conventionality-unconventionality: an extension of problem-behavior theory.

Examined the relation of psychosocial and behavioral conventionality-unconventionality to health-related behavior in cross-sectional data from 1,588 male and female 7th to 12th graders. Conventionality-unconventionality was represented by personality, perceived social environment, and behavior variables selected from the social-psychological framework of problem-behavior theory (R. Jessor & S. L. Jessor, 1977). Greater psychosocial conventionality correlates with more regular involvement in health-related behavior (regular physical activity, adequate sleep, safety belt use, attention to healthy diet). Greater behavioral conventionality (less involvement in problem behaviors such as marijuana use, problem drinking, delinquent-type behavior, and greater involvement in conventional behaviors such as church attendance) was also associated with greater involvement in health-maintaining behavior. The overall findings provide support for the extension of problem-behavior theory to the domain of adolescent health behavior and for the relevance of the dimension of conventionality-unconventionality.

Risk behavior in adolescence: A psychosocial framework for understanding and action☆

Abstract A social-psychological framework for the explanation of adolescent risk behavior is presented. The framework incorporates attention to both person and situational variables, and it differentiates both sets of variables into risk factors and protective factors. Risk is then considered to be a resultant reflecting the balance of risk and protection. The framework makes clear that being “at risk” for onsetting or initiating risk behaviors is an earlier developmental stage than being “at risk” for the compromising health- and life-outcomes of actually engaging in risk behaviors. The person-situation interactionist perspective that informs the framework provides an alternative to the formulation presented by Arnett (1992) to account for “reckless” behavior in adolescence.

Ethnography and human development : context and meaning in social inquiry

Studies of human development have taken an ethnographic turn in the 1990s. In this volume, anthropologists, psychologists and sociologists discuss how qualitative methodologies have strengthened the understanding of cognitive, emotional and behavioural development, and of the difficulties of growing up in contemporary society. Part One, informed by a post-positivist philosophy of science, argues for the validity of ethnographic knowledge. Part Two examines a range of qualitative methods, from participant observation to the hermeneutic elaboration of texts. In Part Three, ethnographic methods are applied to issues of human development across the life span and to social problems including poverty, racial and ethnic marginality, and crime. Restoring ethnographic methods to a central place in social inquiry, the 22 essays in this text should interest everyone concerned with the epistemological problems of context, meaning and subjectivity in the behavioural sciences.

The Concept of Health Promotion and the Prevention of Adolescent Drug Abuse

A three-dimensional conceptual model for health promotion interventions to prevent adolescent drug abuse is elaborated. The model is based on an analysis of the concept of health into four domains—physical, psychological, social, and personal; an analysis of intervention approaches to change behavior into two major strategies—introducing/strengthening health-enhancing be havior, and weakening/eliminating health-compromising behavior; and an analysis of the foci of interventions into three levels—environmental, personality, and behavior. Components of a specific health promotion program, the Minnesota Heart Health Program, that are designed to prevent adolescent drug abuse are described. These include health behavior campaigns, edu cational interventions, and community organization. The theoretical content of the components is shown to be linked logically to the health promotion model.

Occupational Choice: a Conceptual Framework

Publisher Summary The problem of explaining why people enter different occupations can be approached from various perspectives. It is possible to examine the ways in which changes in the wage structure and other economic factors channel the flow of the labor force into different occupations, in which case the psychological motives through which these socioeconomic forces become effective are treated. An approach would focus upon the stratified social structure, rather than upon either the psychological makeup of individuals or the organization of the economy, and would analyze the effects of parental social status upon the occupational opportunities of children. Each of these perspectives, by the nature of the discipline from which it derives, excludes from consideration some important variables that might affect occupational choice and selection. Representatives from the three disciplines—psychology, economics, and sociology—have collaborated in the development of a more inclusive conceptual framework.

Structure of health-enhancing behavior in adolescence: A latent-variable approach.

The structure of the interrelations among a variety of health-enhancing behaviors was examined using structural equation modeling analyses of questionnaire data from 1,280 middle school students and 2,219 high school students. The health-enhancing behaviors included seat belt use, adequate hours of sleep, attention to healthy diet, adequate exercise, low sedentary behavior, and regular toothbrushing. In the middle school sample, all of the health-enhancing behaviors correlated significantly but modestly with each other, except for sleep with toothbrushing. In the high school sample, all but three of the 15 correlations among the behaviors were significant. The results further show that a single underlying factor can account for the modest correlations among these health-enhancing behaviors in both samples. The generality of the single-factor model was also established for male, female, White, Hispanic, and Black students at each school level. These findings provide some support for the existence of health-related lifestyles in adolescence.