Research paperThe relationship between early risk-taking behavior and mental health problems among a nationally representative sample of Australian youth
Section snippets
Participants and procedure
The present sample was drawn from Growing Up in Australia: The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC), a nationally representative study of child development and well-being (Soloff et al., 2005). Soloff et al. (2005) published a detailed description of the study design. The present study examines a subsample of the older of two independent LSAC cohorts, known as the Kindergarten cohort (K cohort; N=4983) who were between 4 and 5 years old during the first wave of data collection in
Results
Prevalence rates for each of the four outcome variables at wave 7 (age 16–17) are presented in Table 3, separately by participant sex. Females reported high levels of internalizing symptoms (29.9%), and self-harm (16.1%) at more than twice the rate of males (13.8% and 6.1%, respectively). Almost half of all females (49.4%) met the threshold for significant depressive symptoms, with a large proportion of males (33%) also meeting this threshold. One in 10 males (10.9%) exhibited high levels of
Discussion
The present study examined associations between age of initiation of risk-taking behaviors (alcohol use, illicit drug use and sexual intercourse) and mental health problems (symptoms of internalizing, externalizing, depression and self-harm) at age 16–17, separately by participant sex. Self-harm was considered as an outcome in this context for the first time. The study found that risk-taking behaviors were associated with diverse mental health problems during adolescence, and the presence of
Author contributors
AS conceptualized the research question, co-designed the analysis plan and conducted analyses, led the interpretation of analyses and drafted the manuscript. NN, CC and TS assisted in study conception and analysis plan design. All co-authors assisted with manuscript drafting and interpretation of study results and have approved the final manuscript.
Funding
This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
Declarations of Competing Interest
None.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship and the Centre of Research Excellence in Prevention and Early Intervention in Mental Illness and Substance Use (PREMISE) via an Australian National Health and Medical Research Council Centre of Research Excellence Grant (APP1134909).
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