The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine the associations between social determinants of health (mother’s education, socioeconomic status, levels of poverty, academic performance, and perceived racism), and reports of depressive symptoms, sexual risk, substance use, and suicide risk behaviors. Numerous studies have documented the increasing prevalence of mental health, sexual risk, and substance use behaviors in adolescents nationwide. These behaviors usually are established in adolescence, persist into adulthood, are inter-related, and preventable. In addition to causing adverse health effects, these behaviors contribute to many of the educational and social concerns within the United States, including failure to complete high school, unemployment, and poverty.
The relationships among socioenvironmental factors (e.g., SES) were examined as determinants of individual risk behaviors (e.g., substance use) by utilizing an adaptation of the Conceptual Model of Race (LaVeist, 1994) and the Social Determinants of Health (LaVeist, 2005b) models, called the Social Determinants of Adolescent Risk Behaviors. Cross sectional data obtained from the National Longitudinal Study on Adolescent Health (Add Health Study) Wave II Public Use Data were used for this secondary analysis. The sample consisted of high school students (n = 3,599) surveyed during the 1995-1996 academic year. Majority of the participants identified themselves as White (81.3%), were female (52.0%), and the average age was 16 years.
The findings suggest significant differences among the racial groups across all socioenvironmental factors including grade point averages and perceived racism scores. Additionally, socioenvironmental predictors of risk behaviors also varied across racial groups. Poverty and income were indicators for pregnancy in White and Other high school female adolescents; but not African American females. Poverty and mother’s educational attainment were indicators for suicide attempts in Black adolescents. Grade point average was found to be a significant predictor of binge drinking, trying marijuana, and suicidal ideation for all high school adolescents in this study. Perceived racism was identified as a predictor of mild to moderate symptoms of depression among all racial groups. Additional studies are warranted to understand racial differences in risk behaviors to identify appropriate interventions to better support behavioral and emotional well being of adolescents.