Abstract

Clusters of parental and peer variables associated with adolescent risk behaviors are explored using the mixture model. Questionnaires were completed by 917 high school freshmen in the Daegu Kyungpook area and included measures of risk behaviors, parental attachment, autonomy, parental monitoring, and peers' risk behaviors and desirable behaviors. As a result of the mixture model, five clusters were produced. Two of the subgroups were consistent with the literature of showing linear relationships among adolescent risk behaviors and above variables; a group of higher parental attachment and autonomy as well as parental monitoring, lower friends' risk behaviors, and lower adolescent risk behaviors, and a group of lower parental attachment and autonomy as well as parental monitoring, higher friends' risk behaviors, and higher adolescent risk behaviors. Two other subgroups were similar in parental attachment and autonomy, but differed in parental monitoring, friends' risk behaviors, and adolescent risk behaviors. The last subgroup was characterized by scoring the lowest parental attachment and autonomy, parental monitoring, friends' risk behaviors, and lower adolescent risk behaviors compared to other subgroups. The utility of the mixture model in research on adolescent risk behaviors is discussed in the conclusion.

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