AGRE, LYNN A.
Cross-lagged Analysis of Adolescent Sensation Seeking and Health Risk Behaviors: Testing Reciprocal Causality and Causal Direction
Presented: Philadelphia PA, American Public Health Association (APHA) 137th Annual Meeting and Exposition, November 2009
Cohort(s): NLSY79 Young Adult
ID Number: 6314
Publisher: American Public Health Association

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Using multiple waves from the 2000, 2002, and 2004 NLSY Young Adult cohorts (n=1700), this paper addresses how the causal inter-relationships of depression and risk proneness (sensation seeking) influence adolescent alcohol use and sexual risk taking. Structural equation modeling with cross-lagged data will test the reciprocal causality of risk proneness and depressive symptoms and their affect on health risk behaviors over time among adolescents ages 14 to 21. This phenomenological cycle will be evaluated by applying statistical weights for each of the respective years, prior to calculating the covariance matrix for path analyses performed in AMOS. In preliminary analyses, the direct and indirect influence of depression and risk proneness on adolescent alcohol use and sexual risk taking suggest a one-way direction of causation. This research builds on existing findings from cross-sectional data, extending the model from one point in time to determine how Time 1 risk proneness propensity influences Time 2 health risk behaviors which affect Time 3 outcomes, i.e. severity index of adolescent alcohol use in the past 30 days and sexual risk taking. Implications for community-level intervention programs are discussed.

AGRE, LYNN A.
Adolescent Depression and Substance Use: Does Co-morbidity Vary by Neighborhood?
Presented: Washington, DC, American Public Health Association (APHA) 135th Annual Meeting and Exposition, November 3-7, 2007
Cohort(s): NLSY79 Young Adult
ID Number: 5930
Publisher: American Public Health Association

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

The link between depression and substance use has been well substantiated in the mental health literature. But does this association differ by neighborhood? Indeed, communities are often established based on normative standards such as average income and educational attainment thresholds. Does a community, then, influence health status on an aggregate level and shape adolescent health decision making processes on the individual level? Using the National Longitudinal Survey on Youth 1998, 2000 and 2002 Young Adult Cohorts, multilevel modeling will investigate the relationship between socio-economic status and mental health and well-being by examining disparities among neighborhoods. This paper will address how neighborhood characteristics such as appraisal of neighborhood safety, educational attainment, income and psychosocial indexes vary within and between groups of adolescents. Applying hierarchical linear modeling, adolescent mental health measured by the short form of the CESD will elucidate distinctions in self-reported depression and illicit/licit substance use prevalence by locality. These ratings of depression in conjunction with measures of mastery, self-esteem and parent-child quality ratings as well as sociodemographic characteristics at the individual and regional levels will then be used to examine adolescent substance use within neighborhoods and between communities. Urban, suburban, and rural regions within the US will be compared based on mean income, highest grade completed and perceived neighborhood appeal as determined by adolescent survey participants. Implications for targeted interventions such as health education programs promoting adolescent prosocial behavior and encouraging community-wide involvement will be discussed.

AGRE, LYNN A.
Comorbidity of Maternal Disability and Depression: Effect on Children's Behavioral and Psychosocial Development
Presented: Washington, DC, American Public Health Association Meeting, November 1998
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
ID Number: 3708
Publisher: American Public Health Association

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

OBJECTIVES: Examine the relationship between maternal self-reported depressive symptoms, physical disability and child health and well-being. Explore the impact of self-reported depressive symptoms on the home environment and the effect on children's development (as a proxy for health status).

AGRE, LYNN A.
Health Status and Prenatal Care Use among Women on Welfare Enrolled in Medicaid vs. Private Insurance: Impact on Infant Birth Weight
Presented: Chicago, IL, American Public Health Association Meeting, November 1999
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
ID Number: 3669
Publisher: American Public Health Association

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

As the Medicaid program has been broadened to encompass vulnerable populations, debate has surrounded whether Medicaid recipients specifically women and children are as healthy as the non-Medicaid insured population. This paper then will address the impact of Medicaid before the implementation of CHIP on maternal-child health status using micro-level national data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) Child Supplement.

AGRE, LYNN A.
Home Environment and Child's Cognitive and Emotional Developmental Delay: Evidence from the 1988 NLSY
M.A. Thesis, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, 1995
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
ID Number: 2878
Publisher: UMI - University Microfilms, Bell and Howell Information and Learning

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Objectives: The purpose of this research is to investigate the association between home environment and developmental delay in school-age children between the ages of 5 and 9, controlling for gender, socioeconomic status, and presence of father-figure at home. Methods: Development delay as a measure of child health status was defined using the developmental tests administered to the children of the 1988 NLSY. Those children below the 10th percentile of the Behavior Problems Index or the Peabody Individual Achievement Test subtests were considered developmentally delayed. Results: The bivariate relationship between developmental delay and poverty status, race, mother's education, the presence of the father and the home environment were investigated with chi-square test statistic and t-test statistic. Multivariate models included logistic regression to examine the effect of the home environment on developmental delay. Conclusions: While the typical profile of the children in the lower decile manifesting delay appears to concur with previously reported research, i.e. more children are poor than not poor, are black and live in urban environments, this research suggests that the home environment is a critical determinant of developmental delay. Presence or absence of father in household, poverty and mother's educational attainment may be considered contributing factors to the physical aspects of the home environment.

AGRE, LYNN A.
Mental Health Factors in Determining Adolescent Aggressive Behavior in the Neighborhood Setting
Presented: Boston, MA, American Public Health Association (APHA) 134th Annual Meeting and Exposition November 4-8, 2006
Cohort(s): NLSY79 Young Adult
ID Number: 5927
Publisher: American Public Health Association

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

In addition to spatial analysis of disease clusters and the development of epidemiological catchment areas designed to target treatment and prevention, it is necessary to evaluate how individuals perceive the quality of their neighborhoods and the impact of their perception on their behavior in determining health and well-being. The context of environment quality may reflect how residents view their mental health and well-being in conjunction with other physical health behaviors such as substance use, and level of depressive symptoms. Indeed, residents' beliefs, attitudes and feelings about their community may influence their social conduct within that milieu. The teen years are critical in ascertaining how the role of the neighborhood contributes toward health and well-being outcomes in later-life. This study, then, examines how adolescents appraise their neighborhood and how the interplay of substance use, self-rated mastery, self-esteem and depressive symptoms promote aggressive behaviors. Using the 1998 NLSY Young Adult Survey, n = 400, average age 16.5 years, both bivariate and multivariate analyses reveal that among younger adolescent males with lower religiosity, regular alcohol use, and living in neighborhoods rated as lower quality, depressive symptoms are associated with fighting, including hitting and hurting self and others. However, strong parenting appears to offset the effect of lower neighborhood quality, depressive symptoms and alcohol use in promoting aggressive behavior. Moreover, higher maternal education moderates the relationship between depressive symptoms, increased substance use and aggressive behaviors such as fighting and hurting others, including self. Interventions need to address depression and its association with violent behavior.

AGRE, LYNN A.
Multilevel Modeling Approach to Adolescent Risk Perception in the Neighborhood Setting
Presented: Washington DC, American Public Health Association (APHA) 135th Annual Meeting and Exposition November 3-7, 2007
Cohort(s): NLSY79 Young Adult
ID Number: 5928
Publisher: American Public Health Association

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Using multilevel modeling, this study will examine how risk propensity during earlier adolescent years can determine deleterious health behavior, including co-morbid substance use and risky sexual behavior in young adulthood. Data from the National Longitudinal Survey on Youth Young Adult waves of 1998, 2000 and 2002 will be analyzed to investigate between and within group variation by region of study subjects—an application of Hierarchical Linear Modeling. A single level model will first test the effects of personal characteristics on adolescents' risk perception, and second the adolescents' neighborhood scale ratings on risk perception, as outcomes using linear regression, run cross-sectionally for each year and then longitudinally. The model in the second step will evaluate the different effects of adolescent personal characteristics and adolescents' perception of their neighborhoods on (1) alcohol use, (2) drug use, (3) tobacco and (4) sexual behavior in four separate regressions, again both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. The level 1 model will assess the association between personal and neighborhood characteristics. The level 2 model will evaluate how the adolescents' own risk perception varies within and among urban and rural areas according to neighborhood characteristics as appraised by adolescents themselves. This research addresses an understudied area in the literature as defined by Bronfenbrenner's ecological model of the interaction between environment—the neighborhood—and the individual—the adolescent. Mother's educational attainment—as a resource for information and appraisal about risks--will be introduced in this analysis as a social support proxy and buffer to offset the effects of neighborhood quality.

AGRE, LYNN A.
Parent-Child Interaction, Family Composition and the Quality of the Home: Effect on Adolescent Depression
Presented: Boston, MA, American Public Health Association Meeting, November 2000
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
ID Number: 3667
Publisher: American Public Health Association

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Parental versus child view of relations between parent and child differ widely. The levels of behavior, the dynamics of these behaviors and how these perceptions of behavior integrate the parent and child in the family unit, temper the functioning of the family as an econmic unit in society, in turn mediates the family's role in shaping child well-being. This paper will explore both the mother's and the adolescent's feelings about fluctuating social arenas, both outside and inside the parent-child sanctum, and how these dynamics affect child depression, from the maternal view as well as the child perception.

AGRE, LYNN A.
Risk-taking and Adolescent Sexual Behavior: The Interplay Between Psychosocial Factors and Socio-environmental Influence
Presented: Washington, DC, American Public Health Association Meetings, Nov 6-10, 2004
Cohort(s): NLSY79 Young Adult
ID Number: 5108
Publisher: American Public Health Association

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

With the rise in STD transmission rates and teen pregnancy, the propensity toward early initiation of sexual behavior coupled with alcohol and licit/illicit drug use has generated concern about the welfare of our youth and later-life outcomes associated with these social health problems. Previous research has demonstrated that sociodemographic characteristics including race, gender, income and low income neighborhoods predispose adolescents at an early age to initiate sexual behavior. However, these characteristics only explain a portion of the variance associated with these risk profiles. Based on the Bronfrenbrenner Ecological Framework and using the 1998 National Longitudinal on Youth Young Adult Survey, this study will examine psychosocial and environmental factors among youth ages 15 to 23 years at the individual and familial level that predispose teens to self-identify as high versus low risk. The independent variables of self-esteem, mastery, depressive symptoms, parental monitoring, parent-child quality, peer influence and neighborhood quality will be regressed on a self-rated risk index, as the dependent variable. The predictor scores from the first regression equation, i.e. self-rated risk adverse as opposed to risk prone, based on the psychosocial and environmental factors, will then be used in the second regression equation to determine who will be more likely to engage in sexual behavior in conjunction with alcohol and licit/illicit drugs. Subsequently, risk profiles will be developed that predict likelihood of combined sexual initiation and alcohol and drug use, using Kaplan-Meir Product Limit estimates as compared to other classification methods such as Logical Analysis of Data.

AGRE, LYNN A.
Role of Alcohol/Drug Use and Psychosocial Well-Being in Teenage Sexual Behavior: Findings from the 1994 NLSY
Presented: Washington, DC, American Public Health Association Meeting, November 1998
Cohort(s): NLSY79 Young Adult
ID Number: 3685
Publisher: American Public Health Association

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Despite accounts of reduced teenage pregnancy rates, the highest incidence of HIV and other STDs as reported by the CDC remains steadfast among teenagers and young adults. While youth may perceive themselves as invincible and impervious to the perils of health risk behavior, they remain vulnerable to social pressures. Encompassed within the social pressure purview are the interplay of alcohol/drug use, violence, vandalism, and self-esteem emerging as co-risk factors in the transmission of disease.

AGRE, LYNN A.
Role of Maternal Morbidity in Measuring Social Inequality Among Low Birth Weight Children
Presented: Atlanta, GA, American Public Health Association (APHA) 129th Annual Meeting and Exposition October 21-25, 2001
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79
ID Number: 5926
Publisher: American Public Health Association

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

The goal of this study is to determine the influence of maternal health status on measuring social inequality among low birth weight, using the National Longitudinal Survey on Youth (NLSY) Mother-Child Supplement. Low birth weight has previously been treated as a biological phenomenon, attributed to medical etiological factors, such as incomplete gestational age (less than thirty-seven weeks) due to preterm membrane rupture, preterm labor in singleton births, small for gestational age in twin births and poor maternal prenatal health care inputs, including lack of or substandard prenatal care. The resulting low birth weight population has been assessed for behavioral and cognitive developmental delay. However, social-environmental characteristics included in these outcome studies have concentrated on sociodemographics such as income, maternal education, with some emphasis on social support and cohesive networks. The need to evaluate these developmental outcomes in the social-environmental milieu suggests more than simply the incorporation of wider measures of parent-child relationship quality, and surrounding community-level assets for example, but the call for interactions between maternal health behavior characteristics and social inequalities. This project will first explore the predictors that determine low birth weight. The concept of social capital as a measure of social inequality, captured on the community, family and individual levels, will then be applied to this study population for its moderating effect on child health outcomes followed from birth through age fourteen. Behavioral/mental health problems, cognitive health including performance tests, and physical health, represented as body mass index, will be examined in relation to social capital.

AGRE, LYNN A.
PETERSON, N. ANDREW
Risk Prone or Risk Adverse: Sensation Seeking and Adolescent Health Risk Behavior
Presented: San Diego, CA, American Public Health Association (APHA) 136th Annual Meeting and Exposition, October 25-28, 2008
Cohort(s): NLSY79 Young Adult
ID Number: 5929
Publisher: American Public Health Association

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

This paper examines how adolescent risk proneness (sensation seeking) in conjunction with psychosocial factors (mastery, self-esteem and depression) and environmental influences (parenting and neighborhood quality) predict likelihood to engage in deleterious health risk behaviors, i.e. alcohol, tobacco use and sexual activity. Using the NLSY 1998 young adult cohort (ages 14-21), scales based on Rosenberg self-esteem, Pearlin mastery and CES-D depression measures are formulated, together with neighborhood and parent-child relationship assessments, and Zuckerman risk propensity self-evaluation (all with Cronbach's alpha reliability =.7) to test the multivariate relationship on the outcome severity indexes of high tobacco and alcohol utilization, and sexual involvement. In preliminary models, discriminant and MANCOVA analyses (n=354) are applied to elucidate profiles of adolescents at higher and lower risk of early substance use and sexual behavior initiation. These statistical classification methods, then, reveal that younger white males with higher self-esteem, higher mastery, higher depressive symptoms, but poorer parenting and lower quality neighborhoods, have higher self-rated risk proneness scores, indicating they are more likely to engage in conduct detrimental to health (with significance less than .05). Similarly, younger black females with higher self-esteem, lower mastery, lower depression and poorer parenting and lower neighborhood quality also have greater propensity to appraise themselves as risk prone. Indeed, interaction between socio-emotional environment and sensation seeking during teen years can set the stage for later-life deleterious health outcomes. Thus, risky behavior patterns established in early adulthood have implications for a life course trajectory of co-morbid mental and physical conditions in middle and older adulthood.

AGRE, LYNN A.
SAMBAMOORTHI, USHA
Effects of Social Environmental Factors on Health Risk Decision-Making Among Adolescents in the NLSY
Presented: Indianapolis, IN, American Public Health Association Meeting, November 1997
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
ID Number: 3707
Publisher: American Public Health Association

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

OBJECTIVES: Examine the role of parenting, family interaction, peer relationships, youth self-reported sexual and substance use behavior, other social and economic stressors like poverty and quality of home environment in influencing adolescent health risk behavior. Investigate if peer-involvement experience encourages certain adolescent health-risk decisions; if parental interaction together with the home environment act as a mediator, offsetting outside influences.

AGRE, LYNN A.
SAMBAMOORTHI, USHA
CRYSTAL, STEPHEN
Child's Health Status and Home Environment: Evidence from the 1988 NLSY
Presented: New York, NY, American Public Health Association Annual Meeting, November 1996
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
ID Number: 2963
Publisher: American Public Health Association

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Panel presentation. This study uses cross-sectional data from the 1988 wave of mothers (n=1,280) matched with their school-age children from 5 through 9 years (n=2,414). The mothers 21-29, and their children 0-18+, who have been interview every two years since 1986 through 1992 resulting in a total of 4 waves to date.

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