Objective: To test a theoretical model of how ethnic pride and self-control are related to risk and protective factors.
Design: A community sample of 670 African American youth (mean age = 11.2 years) were interviewed in households.
Main outcome measures: Measures of cigarette smoking, alcohol use, and sexual behavior (lifetime to past month).
Results: Structural modeling analyses indicated parenting was related to self-control and self-esteem, and racial socialization was related to ethnic pride. Self-control and self-esteem variables were related to levels of deviance-prone attitudes and to perceptions of engagers in, or abstainers from, substance use and sexual behavior. The proximal factors (behavioral willingness, resistance efficacy, and peer behavior) had substantial relations to the criterion variables. Participant gender and parental education also had several paths in the model. Results were generally similar for the 2 outcome behaviors.
Conclusions: In this population, self-esteem and self-control are related to parenting approaches and have pathways to attitudes and social perceptions that are significant factors for predisposing to, or protecting against, early involvement in substance use and sexual behavior.