Cumulative Ecological Risk And Adolescents’ Health Risk Behavior

Adolescent health risk behaviors have become a global public health concern worldwide.Data from the World Health Organization(WHO)have revealed that there were approximately 3,000 adolescents dead every day in the world.The main reason of their death is adolescents’ health risk behaviors.Therefore,the WHO has called on researchers,policymakers,and practitioners in all of the countries to pay attention to adolescent health risk behaviors.A large body of research has focused on the impact factors of adolescent health risk behaviors,which has documented that various school,family,and peer factors were associated with adolescent health risk behaviors.Unfortunately,little is known about the relationship between multiple ecological risk factors and adolescent health risk behaviors.Therefore,this study would comprehensively include risk factors from multiple systems(i.e.,school,family,and peer)that are closely related to adolescent development,and model the real adversity of adolescent’s lives by constructing cumulative ecological risks in order to test the relationship between adversity and adolescent health risk behaviors(Research Question 1).In addition,extant research has mostly based on the developmental psychopathology models to understand adolescent health risk behaviors.Only few studies have based on the evolutionary models to explore the potential evolutionary process of adolescent health risk behaviors.Thus,this study based on the"life history framework" from the evolutionary model to investigate the potential process of cumulative ecological risk impact on adolescent health risk behaviors(Research Question 2).Furthermore,given that previous studies have found that individuals in adversity do not always have development crises,it is necessary to explore whether the individual attributes can play a protective role in adversity.Therefore,based on the perspectives of resilience,this study would examine whether individual beliefs about adversity can play a protective role in the process from cumulative ecological risk to adolescent health risk behaviors(Research Question 3).Finally,since gender differences and developmental stage differences have always been the two most concerned issues for developmental researchers,this study would test the "gender similarity hypothesis vs.gender difference hypothesis" and "developmental stage similarity hypothesis vs.developmental stage difference hypothesis" through examining whether the result patterns as mentioned above have gender differences and developmental stage differences(Research Question 4).This study randomly recruited participants from four middle schools(two junior high schools and two senior high schools)in Hubei province and Hebei province.The sample included 1,194 adolescents(51.17%male;63.15%at junior high school;Mage=14.66 years,SD=1.61).Multiple methods(adolescent self-report method and peer nomination method)were utilized to collect data.The participants completed a series questionnaires,which measures 22 ecological risk factors,basic psychological needs satisfaction,future orientation,beliefs about adversity,health risk behaviors,and demographic information.After data cleaning and preliminary analysis,path analysis was employed to test relations among the study variables in Mplus.The results of Research Question 1 show that cumulative ecological risk can significantly positively predict adolescent health risk behaviors,and that individuals with more cumulative ecological risks have higher levels of health risk behaviors.The results of Research Question 2 show that the cumulative ecological risk increases the risk of individual health risk behavior through two indirect paths.Specifically,one is a multiple mediators path involving both basic psychological needs satisfaction and future orientation serially.This serial pathway shows that cumulative ecological risk significantly predicted the decreases of basic psychological needs satisfaction.In turn,decreases of needs satisfaction was related to lower future orientation,which ultimately predicted higher possibility of health risk behaviors.Another is a single mediator path involving future orientation only.This single mediator pathway shows that cumulative ecological risk significantly predicted lower future orientation,which predicted more health risk behaviors.The results of Research Question 3 show that beliefs about adversity could only compensate for the basic psychological needs satisfaction and future orientation,and could not moderate the process from cumulative ecological risk to health risk behaviors.The results of Research Question 4 show that all these effects mentioned above held robust across different gender and developmental stage groups,and there was no gender difference and developmental stage difference.By constructing cumulative ecological risks,this study reveals the adverse effects of adversity on adolescent behavioral development.In response to the call of the WHO,this study reveals the process of cumulative ecological risks impact on adolescent health risk behaviors from the perspective of life history.This study emphasizes that individual basic psychological needs satisfaction is the internal motivation mechanism,and future orientation is the decision mechanism of individual’s behaviors,which deepens our understanding of the impact factors and potential mechanisms of health risk behavior.Furthermore,by examining the protective roles of beliefs about adversity,this study further clarifies that the adverse effects of real adversity cannot easily be eliminated by individual’s own beliefs about adversity,which echoes recent researchers’understanding of resilience.Finally,this study support the gender similarity hypothesis and the developmental stage similarity hypothesis,which indicates that adversity will exert adverse influence on different groups.This study suggests that the joint efforts from both environment and individuals may be promising in the prevention and intervention of adolescent health risk behaviors.