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Connectedness of pregnant adolescents who smoke
Susan A Albrecht1, Maureen D Reynolds, Marie D Cornelius
1School of Pharmacy, Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, PA, USA. saa01@pitt.edu
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.