Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

A Cross-National Comparison of the Development of Adolescent Problem Behavior: a 1-Year Longitudinal Study in India, the Netherlands, the USA, and Australia

  • Published:
Prevention Science Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The world youth population is the largest ever and the levels of problem behavior will influence future global health. Recognition of these issues raises questions as to whether adolescent development knowledge can be internationally applied. To date, most research examining adolescent problem behavior has been completed in the United States (USA) and there has been neglected analysis of health inequalities. The aim of the present study was to compare the structure and predictors of problem behavior in representative samples from the USA, Australia, India, and the Netherlands. Two timepoints of longitudinal data were analyzed from the International Youth Development Study that originally recruited state-representative student cohorts in 2002 in Washington State, USA (analytic sample N = 1942) and Victoria, Australia (N = 1957). Similar aged samples were recruited in Mumbai, India, in 2010 (N = 3.923) and the Netherlands in 2008 (N = 682). Surveys were matched and follow-up occurred over 1-year (average baseline ages 12 to 13). CFA identified a latent problem behavior construct comprised of substance use and antisocial behavior indicators. There were cross-national differences in the indicators for this construct. Factor loadings and items were similar between Australia and the USA; however, different items loaded on the construct for the Indian and Netherlands sample. SEM identified that problem behavior at time 2 was predicted by time 1 behavior, with cross-national differences evident. Low parent education was predictive in the USA and India. The number of risk factors present was predictive of problem behavior in all four nations. The findings suggest that evaluated preventative strategies to reduce adolescent problem behavior may have international applications. The analysis of cross-nationally matched longitudinal data appears feasible for identifying prevalence and predictor differences that may signify policy and cultural contexts, to be considered in adapting prevention programs.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Arthur, M., Briney, J. S., Hawkins, J. D., Abbott, R. D., Brooke-Weiss, B. L., & Catalano, R. F. (2007). Measuring risk and protection in communities using the Communities That Care Youth Survey. Evaluation and Program Planning, 30, 197–211.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Britton, A., Ben-Shlomo, Y., Benzeval, M., Kuh, D., & Bell, S. (2015). Life course trajectories of alcohol consumption in the United Kingdom using longitudinal data from nine cohort studies. BMC Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-015-0273-z.

  • Catalano, R. F., Fagan, A. A., Gavin, L. E., Greenberg, M., Irwin, C. E., Jr., Ross, D. A., & Shek, D. T. L. (2012). Worldwide application of prevention science in adolescent health. The Lancet, 379, 1653–1664. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(12)60238-4.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Caulkins, J. P., & Reuter, P. (1997). Setting goals for drug policy: harm reduction or use reduction? Addiction, 92, 1143–1150.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Chen, K., & Kandel, D. B. (1995). The natural history of drug use from adolescence to the mid-thirties in a general population sample. American Journal of Public Health, 85, 41–47.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Donovan, J. (2005). Problem behavior theory. In C. B. Fisher & R. M. Lerner (Eds.), Encyclopedia of applied developmental science (Vol. 2, pp. 872–877). Thousand Oaks: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Donovan, J., & Jessor, R. (1985). Structure of problem behavior in adolescence and young adulthood. Journal of Consulting & Clinical Psychology, 53, 890–904. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-006X.53.6.890.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Farrell, A. D., Kung, E. M., White, K. S., & Valois, R. (2000). The structure of self-reported aggression, drug use, and delinquent behaviors during early adolescence. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 29, 282–292. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15374424jccp2902_13.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hasin, D. S., Stinson, F. S., Ogburn, E., & Grant, B. F. (2007). Prevalence, correlates, disability, and comorbidity of DSM-IV alcohol abuse and dependence in the United States: Results from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions. Archives of General Psychiatry, 7, 830.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hemphill, S. A., Heerde, J. A., Herrenkohl, T. I., Patton, G. C., Toumbourou, J. W., & Catalano, R. F. (2011). Risk and protective factors for adolescent substance use in Washington State, the United States and Victoria, Australia: A longitudinal study. Journal of Adolescent Health., 49, 312–320.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hemphill, S. A., Tollitt, M., Romaniuk, H., Williams, J., Toumbourou, J. W., Bond, L., & Patton, G. (2013). Carrying weapons and intent to harm among Victorian secondary school students in 1999 and 2009. Medical Journal of Australia, 199, 1–3.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Institute of Medicine. (2009). Report on preventing mental, emotional and behavioural disorders among young people: Progress and possibilities. Retrieved from Washington: Institute of Medicine.

  • Jaccard, J. (2016). The prevention of problem behaviors in adolescents and young adults: Perspectives on theory and practice. Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research, 7, 585–613. https://doi.org/10.1086/689354.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jessor, R. (1991). Risk behavior in adolescence: A psychosocial framework for understanding and action. Journal of Adolescent Health, 12, 597–605.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Jessor, R., & Jessor, S. (1977). Problem behavior and psychosocial development: A longitudinal study of youth. New York: Academic.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jessor, R., & Turbin, M. (2014). Parsing protection and risk for problem behavior versus pro-social behavior among US and Chinese adolescents. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 43, 1037–1051. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-014-0130-y.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Jessor, R., Donovan, J., & Costa, F. (1991). Beyond adolescence: Problem behavior and young adult development. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jessor, R., Turbin, M., Costa, F. M., Dong, Q., Zhang, H., & Wang, Z. (2003). Adolescent problem behavior in China and the United States: A cross-national study of psychosocial protective factors. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 13, 329–360.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jonkman, H. (2012). Some years of Communities That Care. Learning from a social experiment. Retrieved from Amsterdam.

  • Jonkman, H., Steketee, M., Tombourou, J. W., Cini, K., & Williams, J. (2014). Community variation in adolescent alcohol use in Australia and the Netherlands. Health Promotion International, 29, 109–117. https://doi.org/10.1093/heapro/das039.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • McCambridge, J., McAlaney, J., & Rowe, R. (2011). Adult consequences of late adolescent alcohol consumption: A systematic review of cohort studies. PLoS Medicine, 8, e1000413.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McMorris, B., Hemphill, S. A., Toumbourou, J., Catalano, R., & Patton, G. (2007). Prevalence of substance use and delinquent behavior in adolescents from Victoria, Australia and Washington State, United States. Health Education & Behavior, 34, 634–650.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ministerial Council on Drug Strategy. (1998). National Drug Strategic Framework 1998-99 to 2002-03: Building partnerships. Retrieved from Commonwealth of Australia.

  • Mobley, M., & Chun, H. (2013). Testing Jessor’s problem behavior theory and syndrome: A nationally representative comparative sample of Latino and African American adolescents. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 19, 190–199.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Muthen, L., & Muthen, B. (2017). MPlus, Version 8: Statistical anlaysis with latent variables. Los Angeles: CA.

  • Oesterle, S., Hawkins, J., Hill, K., & Bailey, J. (2010). Men’s and women’s pathways to adulthood and their adolescent precursors. Journal of Marriage and Family, 75, 1436.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Patton, G., Sawyer, S. M., Santelli, J. S., Ross, D. A., Afifi, R., Allen, N. B., … Viner, R. M. (2016). Our future: A Lancet commission on adolescent health and wellbeing. The Lancet, 387(10036), 2423–2478. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(16)00579-1.

  • Shek, D. T. L., & Lin, L. (2014). Personal well-being and family quality of life of early adolescents in Hong Kong: Do economic disadvantage and time matter? Social Indicators Research, 117, 795–809.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shek, D. T. L., & Lin, L. (2016). What predicts adolescent delinquent behavior in Hong Kong? A longitudinal study of personal and family factors. Social Indicators Research, 129, 1291–1318. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-015-1170-8.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Solomon, S. (2007). Adolescent problem behavior in Navi Mumbai: An exploratory study of psychosocial risk and protection. The Indian Association of Child Adolescent Mental Health, 3, 88–95.

    Google Scholar 

  • Solomon, S., Minaie, M. G., Toumbourou, J. W., & Catalano, R. F. (2012). How are adolescents faring in the rapidly modernising city of Mumbai? A cross-national comparison of adolescents in Mumbai, India; Washington State in the USA and Victoria in Australia. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.1.3543.0804.

  • Unicef. (2011). The state of the world’s children 2011. Adolescence: An age of opportunity. Retrieved from New York: Unicef.

  • Vazsonyi, A., Chen, P., Young, M., Jenkins, D., Browder, S., Kahumoku, E., … Michaud, P.-A. (2008). A test of Jessor’s problem behavior theory in a Eurasian and a Western European developmental context. Journal of Adolescent Health, 43, 555–564. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2008.06.013.

  • Vazsonyi, A., Chen, P., Jenkins, D. D., Burcu, E., Torrente, G., & Sheu, C.-J. (2010). Jessor’s problem behavior theory: Cross-national evidence from Hungary, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, and the United States. Developmental Psychology, 46, 1779–1791. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0020682.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Willoughby, T., Chalmers, H., & Busseri, M. (2004). Where’s the syndrome? Examining co-occurrence among multiple “problem” behaviours in youth. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 72, 1022–1037. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-006X.72.6.1022.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Worldbank. (2006). World development report 2007. Development and the next generation. Retrieved from Washington DC: The Worldbank.

Download references

Funding

Original IYDS data collection in Washington State and Victoria was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (R01-DA012140-05). Mumbai data collection was funded by a Major Research Project grant (F No 5-236/2008(HRP) from the University Grants Commission, India. The Dutch study was funded by the Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development (ZonMW: 120610017). Data management, analysis, and reporting were supported through funding from the Centre for Social and Early Emotional Development (SEED) at Deakin University, Australia. The funding agencies had no role in the study design, data collection, analysis or interpretation, writing of the report, or decision to submit the paper for publication. The corresponding author had full access to all data in the study and had final responsibility for the decision to submit for publication. The authors declare their independence from the funders and from any tobacco, alcohol, pharmaceutical, or gaming industries or anybody substantially funded by one of these organizations.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Bosco Rowland.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of Interest

The present study uses the Communities That Care survey that Professor Catalano co-designed. Professors Toumbourou and Dr. Rowland have served as volunteer Directors or Officers with Communities That Care Ltd., the not-for-profit company that owns the Communities That Care survey in Australia.

Ethical Approval

For the IYDS US sample, ethics approval was obtained from the University of Washington (Washington State) and for the Australian sample from the University of Melbourne and the Royal Children’s Hospital in Victoria. Appropriate school districts and administrators gave permission for school data collection in each location. Written parental consent was obtained, and students provided assent to participate in the study on the day of the survey.

Ethics procedures for Mumbai mirrored the IYDS in the USA and Australia. The Research Ethics Committee at the Rayat Shikshan Sanstha’s Karmaveer Bhaurao Patil College, Vashi, Mumbai, reviewed and approved the Mumbai IYDS study design in early 2010.

Informed Consent

Approval was obtained from school authorities and from principals. After obtaining the school approval, parental permission was sought to survey children in the target classrooms. After receiving school and parental consent, students were asked to provide their assent before filling out the questionnaire. Approval for the Dutch study was provided by the Verwey-Jonker Institute and regional municipal authorities. Parents and young people provided informed consent as a requirement for young people to participate.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Electronic Supplementary Material

ESM 1

(DOCX 28 kb)

ESM 1

(PNG 72.3 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Rowland, B., Jonkman, H., Steketee, M. et al. A Cross-National Comparison of the Development of Adolescent Problem Behavior: a 1-Year Longitudinal Study in India, the Netherlands, the USA, and Australia. Prev Sci 22, 62–72 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-019-01007-3

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-019-01007-3

Keywords

Navigation