PURPOSE: To examine the relationship of the constructs from the family and school environments and protective individual characteristics to health risk behaviors among pregnant adolescents who smoke. METHODS: Inner-city adolescents (N = 53), aged 14-19 years, who were participating in a smoking cessation intervention program, completed self-report demographic, social, and behavioral questionnaires. FINDINGS: Independent variables included family connectedness, school connectedness, and individual characteristics of religiosity, self-esteem, and grade-point average. Three areas of health risk behavior were dependent variables: delinquent behavior, substance, and precocious sexual behavior. CONCLUSIONS: Positive self-esteem served as a protectivefactorfor alcohol use. In contrast to past studies, school connectedness was a risk, not a protective, factor for substance abuse. Neither school nor family connectedness were protective against delinquent or precocious sexual behavior.
PURPOSE: To examine the relationship of the constructs from the family and school environments and protective individual characteristics to health risk behaviors among pregnant adolescents who smoke. METHODS: Inner-city adolescents (N = 53), aged 14-19 years, who were participating in a smoking cessation intervention program, completed self-report demographic, social, and behavioral questionnaires. FINDINGS: Independent variables included family connectedness, school connectedness, and individual characteristics of religiosity, self-esteem, and grade-point average. Three areas of health risk behavior were dependent variables: delinquent behavior, substance, and precocious sexual behavior. CONCLUSIONS: Positive self-esteem served as a protectivefactorfor alcohol use. In contrast to past studies, school connectedness was a risk, not a protective, factor for substance abuse. Neither school nor family connectedness were protective against delinquent or precocious sexual behavior.