Health promoting behaviors such as adequate exercise and sleep, eating breakfast, maintaining a healthy weight, and not smoking or binge drinking are associated with positive health outcomes during adolescence and higher levels of healthy behaviors during adulthood. These healthy behaviors are major contributors to preventable illnesses and chronic conditions during adulthood, such as cardiovascular disease, onset of disability, Type-II diabetes, obesity, and some cancers. These preventable conditions were the cause of nearly one-half of all deaths in 2000.
Given the importance of healthy behaviors across the life course, it is surprising that few studies document the ways that healthy behaviors change across life course stages. I draw from a life course perspective, the social stress model, and emerging adulthood literature to argue that adolescence (ages 13-17) and emerging adulthood (ages 18-24) are unique life course stages associated with rapid social environmental and developmental changes that have important implications for healthy behavior trajectories during adulthood. I use the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to address three research questions. First, what are the effects of adolescent household characteristics on healthy behavior trajectories between adolescence and emerging adulthood? Second, do early life course transitions, especially forming a family, alter
healthy behavior trajectories? Third, does race-ethnicity moderate the effects of adolescent household characteristics on healthy behavior trajectories?
I find that healthy behaviors decline rapidly between adolescence and emerging adulthood, but that this decline is not experienced similarly among all emerging adults. Specifically, living with non-smoking and non-binge drinking parents, as well as marrying or marrying and having children during emerging adulthood are associated with reduced rates of healthy behavior decline. Girls experience less rapid rates of healthy behavior decline than boys. Healthy behavior losses are less rapid among black and Hispanic males relative to whites. Finally, at age 13, adolescents living with at least one college-educated parent, two married parents, and parents who do not smoke or binge drink report more healthy behaviors than their peers and retain this advantage through emerging adulthood.