Counseling Psychology and Human Services Theses and Dissertations

Permanent URI for this collection

https://hdl.handle.net/1794/8828

Browse

Browsing Counseling Psychology and Human Services Theses and Dissertations by Subject "adolescent"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Adverse Childhood Experiences and Sexual Risk Behavior in Female Youth: Examining the Mediating Role of Externalizing Behaviors and Substance Use and the Moderating Role of Resistance to Peer Influence and Parent Support
    (University of Oregon, 2021-11-23) Kovensky, Rachel; Leve, Leslie
    Sexual risk behavior in adolescence can result in serious health consequences that persist across the lifespan, particularly for female youth. While experiences of early adversity have been linked with engagement in sexual risk behavior later in life, little research has examined pathways that may help to explain this association nor modifiable factors that may help to buffer against the direct risk conferred by adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on adolescent sexual risk-taking. To address this gap, the present study examined substance use and externalizing behaviors as two possible pathways through which ACEs might exert influence on sexual risk behavior in female youth. The present study also tested whether the association between ACEs and sexual risk behavior in female youth depended on youth-reported levels of resistance to peer influence and parent support. I examined data from 122 adolescent females, ages 13-18, who were involved in the juvenile justice system or receiving social supports from local agencies and schools. Female youth were asked to report their exposure to ACES, engagement in substance use and sexual risk behavior, and overall degree of resistance to peer influence and parent support. Caregivers were asked to report on youth’s externalizing behaviors. Findings suggest that increased exposure to ACEs may place female youth at heightened risk for externalizing behaviors and substance use and that higher ACEs may indirectly increase sexual risk-taking in female youth through substance use. Additionally, findings indicate that ACEs, in the context of low parent support, are significantly linked with increased sexual risk-taking in female youth. Conversely, among youth reporting average to high levels of parent support, the association between ACEs and sexual risk behavior was not significant, suggesting the protective role of parent support. Interventions aimed at preventing or decreasing substance use may be particularly important in reducing sexual risk behavior among at-risk female youth. Further, female youth with low levels of parent support may particularly benefit from interventions that seek to improve the parent-youth relationship as a means to prevent sexual risk-taking in female youth exposed to early adversity.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Associations Between Impulsivity, Adverse Childhood Experiences, and Suicide Ideation in a Sample of At-Risk Teen Girls
    (University of Oregon, 2020-02-27) Reich, Emily; Leve, Leslie
    Suicidal behaviors are significant mental health and public health concerns that are preventable by targeted prevention and intervention efforts. It is especially important to focus research and clinical work on adolescents, as suicide is the second leading cause of death in this age group (Heron, 2017). The present study examines the impact of risk factors of adverse childhood experiences, impulsivity, and delinquency on suicide ideation in a sample of 122 at-risk female adolescents who were enrolled in a randomized trial of a skills coaching intervention. Depressive symptoms, intervention condition, and age were controlled for in cross-sectional, longitudinal, and mediation analyses. Adverse childhood experiences and depressive symptoms were found to have a significant direct effect on both concurrent and longitudinal suicide ideation. Discussion of these results provides implications for future research and intervention efforts.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Examining Parental Knowledge and Involvement as Predictors of Adolescent Impulsivity and Alcohol Use Intentions and Frequency
    (University of Oregon, 2022-10-26) O'Brien, Kaitlin; Khurana, Atika
    Prior work has shown that parental knowledge and involvement can have protective effects on adolescent alcohol use; however, less is known about how different dimensions of impulsivity might mediate this association. Guided by the self-control theory and more recent brain network-based models of impulse control development, the present study analyzed data from 345 middle-schoolers to examine the direct effects of parental knowledge and parental involvement on adolescent alcohol use intentions and frequency, as well as their indirect effects through acting without thinking (AWT), delay discounting (DD), and attention control difficulties (AD). Consistent with prior evidence, results revealed direct protective effects of parental knowledge on adolescent alcohol use intentions and frequency as well as direct protective effects of parental involvement on adolescent alcohol use frequency. Of the three impulsivity dimensions, only AWT mediated the association between parental knowledge and adolescent alcohol use frequency. Accounting for the effect of AWT, DD and AD were not significantly associated with alcohol use intentions or frequency, and did not operate as significant mediators of parental effects. The present study advances our understanding of how parenting behaviors can impact adolescent alcohol use both directly as well as indirectly through associations with adolescent impulsivity, specifically AWT. Given that AWT may be sensitive to environmental inputs, such as parenting, findings from the current study provide support for parenting interventions that target AWT as an avenue for preventing adolescent alcohol use, in addition to existing approaches that focus on parental rule setting and supervision. Future research should further examine the mediating role of impulsivity with larger samples using longitudinal designs.