Department of Health Science, Brigham Young University, 4103 LSB, Provo, UT, 84602, USA.
J Youth Adolesc. 2018 Apr;47(4):793-806. doi: 10.1007/s10964-017-0706-4. Epub 2017 Jun 29.
Adolescent self-regulation is increasingly seen as an important predictor of sexual risk-taking behaviors, but little is understood about how changes in self-regulation affect later sexual risk-taking. Family financial stress may affect the development of self-regulation and later engagement in sexual risk-taking. We examined whether family financial stress influences self-regulation in early adolescence (age 13) and growth in self-regulation throughout adolescence (from age 13-17 years). We then assessed the effects of family financial stress, baseline self-regulation, and the development of self-regulation on adolescent sexual risk-taking behaviors at age 18 years. Using a curve-of-factors model, we examined these relationships in a 6-year longitudinal study of 470 adolescents (52% female) and their parents from a large northwestern city in the United States. Results indicated that family financial stress was negatively associated with baseline self-regulation but not with growth in self-regulation throughout adolescence. Both baseline self-regulation and growth in self-regulation were predictive of decreased likelihood of engaging in sexual risk-taking. Family financial stress was not predictive of later sexual risk-taking. Intervening to support the development of self-regulation in adolescence may be especially protective against later sexual risk-taking.
青少年的自我调节能力越来越被视为性行为风险的重要预测因素，但对于自我调节能力的变化如何影响后来的性行为风险知之甚少。家庭经济压力可能会影响自我调节的发展以及后来的性行为风险。我们研究了家庭经济压力是否会影响青少年早期（13 岁）的自我调节能力以及整个青春期（13-17 岁）的自我调节能力的发展。然后，我们评估了家庭经济压力、基线自我调节能力以及自我调节能力的发展对 18 岁青少年性行为风险的影响。我们使用因素曲线模型，在美国西北部一个大城市的 470 名青少年（52%为女性）及其父母进行了一项为期 6 年的纵向研究，检验了这些关系。结果表明，家庭经济压力与基线自我调节能力呈负相关，但与整个青春期自我调节能力的增长无关。基线自我调节能力和自我调节能力的增长都预示着性行为风险的可能性降低。家庭经济压力与后来的性行为风险无关。在青春期干预以支持自我调节能力的发展可能特别有助于预防以后的性行为风险。
