Timmermans Maartje, van Lier Pol A C, Koot Hans M
Department of Developmental Psychology, VU University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2008 Apr;49(4):386-94. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-7610.2007.01842.x. Epub 2007 Nov 1.
Health risk behaviors like substance use (alcohol, tobacco, soft/hard drugs) and risky sexual behavior become more prevalent in adolescence. Children with behavior problems are thought to be prone to engage in health risk behaviors later in life. It is, however, unclear which problems within the externalizing spectrum account for these outcomes.
Three hundred and nine children were followed from age 4/5 years to 18 years (14-year follow-up). Level and course of parent-rated opposition, physical aggression, status violations and property violations were used to predict adolescent-reported substance use and risky sexual behavior at age 18 years.
Both level and change in physical aggression were unique predictors of all forms of adolescent health risk behavior. Levels of status violations predicted smoking and soft drug use only, while change in property violations predicted each of the health risk behaviors. The links between opposition and health risk behaviors were accounted for by co-occurring problem behaviors.
Of externalizing problems, physical aggression is the best predictor of adolescent substance use and risky sexual behavior from childhood onwards. Possible explanations and implications of these findings, and future research directions are discussed.
诸如物质使用（酒精、烟草、软/硬毒品）和危险性行为等健康风险行为在青少年时期变得更加普遍。有行为问题的儿童被认为在以后的生活中更容易参与健康风险行为。然而，尚不清楚外化行为谱中的哪些问题导致了这些结果。
对309名儿童从4/5岁追踪到18岁（14年随访）。用家长评定的对立违抗、身体攻击、违反规则和破坏财物的程度及变化情况来预测18岁青少年报告的物质使用和危险性行为。
身体攻击的程度和变化都是青少年各种形式健康风险行为的独特预测因素。违反规则的程度仅能预测吸烟和使用软毒品，而破坏财物行为的变化则能预测每种健康风险行为。对立违抗与健康风险行为之间的联系可由同时出现的问题行为来解释。
在外化问题中，身体攻击是从童年起青少年物质使用和危险性行为的最佳预测因素。讨论了这些发现的可能解释和意义，以及未来的研究方向。
