An Empirical Test of Ecodevelopmental Theory in Predicting HIV Risk Behaviors Among Hispanic Youth

Abstract

Ecodevelopmental theory is a theoretical framework used to explain the interplay among risk and protective processes associated with HIV risk behaviors among adolescents. Although ecodevelopmentally based interventions have been found to be efficacious in preventing HIV risk behaviors among Hispanic youth, this theory has not yet been directly empirically tested through a basic research study in this population. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to empirically evaluate an ecodevelopmentally based model using structural equation modeling, with substance use and early sex initiation as the two outcomes of the ecodevelopmental chain of relationships. The sample consisted of 586 Hispanic youth (M age = 13.6; SD = 0.75) and their primary caregivers living in Miami, Florida. Adolescent, parent, and teacher reports were used. The results provided strong support for the theoretical model. More specifically, the parent–adolescent acculturation gap is indirectly related both to early sex initiation and to adolescent substance use through family functioning, academic functioning, perceived peer sexual behavior, and perceived peer substance use. Additionally, parent’s U.S. orientation is associated with adolescent substance use and adolescent sex initiation through social support for parents, parental stressors, family functioning, academic functioning, and perceived peer sexual behavior and substance use. These findings suggest that HIV risk behaviors may best be understood as associated with multiple and interrelated ecological determinants.

Bicultural Stress, Identity Formation, and Alcohol Expectancies and Misuse in Hispanic Adolescents: A Developmental Approach

“…Accordingly, a chronological chain of developmental task resolutions is key for adaptive development, whereas disruption of this sequence poses threats to normative development and places one at risk for psychopathology. Stress associated with cultural adaption, for example, can exert significant and potentially deleterious effects on adolescent development (Prado et al 2010). Specifically, bicultural stress may interrupt normative successive developmental processes, such as the development of personal identity, that are key in promotion of effective adaptation to new environments and challenges (Roisman et al 2004).…”

Ecodevelopmental predictors of early initiation of alcohol, tobacco, and drug use among Hispanic adolescents

“…Pantin, Schwartz, Sullivan, Prado, & Szapocznik, 2004), including substance use initiation. For example, ecodevelopmental theory has been tested empirically by Prado and colleagues (2010) to examine HIV risk behaviors among Hispanic youth. This study found that the parent-adolescent acculturation gap and the parent's U.S. acculturation orientation had indirect effects on these behaviors through risk and protective factors related to family functioning, academic functioning, and peers.…”

“…Ecodevelopmental theory (Pantin et al, 2004; Prado et al, 2010; Szapocznik & Coatsworth, 1999; Schwartz, Coatsworth, Pantin, & Szapocznik, 2003) integrates three key elements (social-ecological theory, social interactions, and developmental theory) to help understand the factors associated with adolescent risk and protection. Social-ecological theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1979) proposes that the multiple factors influencing adolescent development can be organized within four social contexts: macrosystem, exosystem, mesosystem, and microsystem.…”

“Our Child Is Not Like Us:” Understanding Parent-Child Conflict Among U.S. Latino Families

“…Some research suggests that such cultural discrepancies might become sources of parent-child conflict (Bámaca-Colbert & Gayles, 2010;Cervantes, Fisher, Córdova, & Napper, 2012;Szapocznik & Kurtines, 1993). Parent-child conflict is relevant to family science because it shapes parent-child relationships, parenting practices, family dynamics, and developmental outcomes (Prado et al, 2010;Santisteban, Coatsworth, Briones, Kurtines, & Szapocznik, 2012).…”