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IU study shows most Hoosier youth avoid risky behavior
Aug. 28, 2000
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Most Hoosier youth make positive decisions to avoid risky behavior, according to findings in a new study from the Indiana Prevention Resource Center (IPRC) at Indiana University.
William Bailey, executive director of IPRC, said the study will "help convince prevention practitioners of the need to focus on developing positives in the lives of their youth clients instead of dwelling on the things that are wrong in the youths' lives."
The report, funded by the Indiana Division of Mental Health, is based on data from 31 surveys conducted by Indiana schools in 1999. Some 27,000 students in grades six through 12 were included to produce what Bailey described as "a reasonable picture of Indiana youth." The findings in the survey, titled "Profiles of Student Life: Attitudes and Behaviors," are posted on the Web at http://www.drugs.indiana.edu/drug_stats/search99/
Some 40 developmental assets in a youth's life were identified that are predictive of quality of life experiences as adolescents. These include internal assets such as motivation level, resistance skills and personal power, and external assets like family support, family and school boundaries, and parent involvement.
Bailey, an associate professor of applied health science in the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, said the findings show most Hoosier youngsters are making positive decisions about risk-taking. For example, 82 percent said they have never been in trouble with the police, 83 percent have never engaged in binging/purging (bulimic) behavior, 73 percent have never had sexual intercourse, and only 18 percent regularly engage in multiple risk behaviors that include alcohol, tobacco and drug use.
The survey showed that decisions to pursue risky behavior are highly correlated with the number of developmental assets possessed by a young person. "The greater the number of positive assets, the fewer risky behaviors," Bailey said.
For example, lower-asset youth were 25 times more likely than high-asset youth to smoke cigarettes. "This disparity is even greater in daily smoking, as 42 percent of the lower-asset youth smoked daily, compared with 0.1 percent of high-asset youth," he said. There were similar comparisons involving drinking and driving, smoking marijuana, shoplifting, vandalism, using illicit drugs and having sexual intercourse.
Bailey said youth with high asset levels also showed more tendencies than lower-asset youth in such areas as school success, helping others, valuing diversity, maintaining good health, exhibiting leadership, resisting danger, delaying gratification and overcoming adversity.
Although the survey reported generally favorable results, Bailey said there were some areas where Hoosier youth are at risk of developing serious problems: more than a third of the youth in the sixth through ninth grades are without adult supervision after school, 14 percent have carried a gun or knife for protection in the last year, 29 percent were afraid to walk in their neighborhood at least occasionally, and 33 percent would not go to their parents to discuss a serious issue such as alcohol, drugs or sex.
For more information, contact Bailey at 812-855-1237 or baileyw@indiana.edu
(Richard Doty, 812-855-0084, rgdoty@indiana.edu)