Explaining Patterns of Adolescent Drug Use and Sexual Behaviors: The Role of Ethnicity, Nativity, and Context

Jon Hussey, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Denise Hallfors, Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation
Hyunsan Cho, Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation
Bonita Iritani, Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation
Martha Waller, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Prior research has found differentials in adolescent health risk behaviors by racial and ethnic group membership, nativity, and context. In this paper we extend prior research by identifying and then predicting patterns of adolescent drug use and sexual behaviors. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we employ a person-centered cluster analytic approach to first identify patterns of drug use and sexual behaviors. Next, we examine the ability of hypothesized individual and contextual-level risk factors, including ethnic group membership and nativity, to explain the observed patterns of drug use and sexual behaviors.