Psychosocial factors and multiple health risk behaviors among early adolescents: a latent profile analysis

Christopher M. Warren*, Afton Kechter, Georgia Christodoulou, Christopher Cappelli, Mary Ann Pentz

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

Early adolescence is a pivotal developmental period when multiple health risk behaviors, such as obesity and substance use, are often established. Several psychosocial factors, often considered traits, have been independently associated with these increases, including executive function (EF), mindfulness disposition (MD), perceived stress, distress tolerance (DT), and anhedonia. However, these factors have not been evaluated for their conjoint relationships to determine whether different patterns may signal greater or lesser risk for obesity and substance use, and whether the same patterns relate to obesity and substance use in the same ways (same magnitude of risk). To evaluate these patterns, a latent profile analysis was conducted, resulting in a three-profile model. Profile 1 (8% of sample) was characterized by the lowest levels of EF, MD, DT and highest levels of stress and anhedonia, profile 2 (44%) intermediate levels, and profile 3 (48%) the highest levels of EF, MD, DT and lowest levels of stress and anhedonia. Youth classified to profile 1 reported significantly greater levels of both obesogenic and substance use behaviors relative to other profiles. Findings suggest that adolescents engaging in obesogenic and substance use behaviors may share common profiles of psychosocial risk.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1002-1013
Number of pages12
JournalJournal of Behavioral Medicine
Volume43
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2020
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Anhedonia
  • Distress tolerance
  • Executive function
  • Mindfulness
  • Multiple health risk behavior
  • Obesity prevention
  • Psychosocial stress
  • Substance use prevention

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Psychology(all)
  • Psychiatry and Mental health

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