The effect of social capital and socio-demographics on adolescent risk and sexual health behaviours.

Abstract: Adolescence is a developmental period characterized by heightened potential for risk-taking behaviours that have important implications for health and well-being. This study uses social capital to understand social influences on adolescent risk-taking in the Canadian context. Using data from the National Population Health Survey (NPHS), the paper contrasts the three most prominent interpretations of social capital by Bourdieu (1985, 1990), Coleman (1988, 1990), and Putnam (2000) in their association with multiple risk activities. Social capital indicators were significant predictors of risk behaviour among all adolescents; however, they were stronger predictors for males than females. Coleman's model, focusing on the family's role in social capital, had the strongest predictive power for males; whereas Putnam's model, focusing on social capital located in group and organizational membership, had the strongest predictive power for females. The findings support the conclusion that social capital is an important explanatory framework to consider when trying to understand adolescent risk behaviours.

Key words: Multiple risk activities, social capital, adolescents.

Introduction

Adolescence is a challenging developmental period characterized by experimentation, curiosity (Benda & Corwyn, 1998; Galambos & Tilton-Weaver, 1998) and uncertainty (Feldman & Elliott, 1990), making it a period of heightened potential for risk-taking. Consumption of health compromising substances such as alcohol, tobacco and other recreational drugs, as well as unprotected sexual activity that carries risk for unwanted pregnancy and infection, are among the risk-related activities taken up by many adolescents.

These risk behaviours among adolescents have been associated with social and economic costs, in both the short and long term, including accidents, violence, suicide, chronic or acute health conditions, truncated educational achievement and reduced employment opportunity, as well as direct financial burdens to health care and to other social services (Benda & Corwin, 1998; Galambos & Tilton-Weaver, 1998; Health Canada, 2001; MacDonald, 1984; Marcos & Bahr, 1988; Marcos, Bahr, & Johnson, 1986; Smith, 1984; Taub & Skinner, 1990; The Alan Guttmacher Institute, 1994). Research suggests that engaging in one form of risk behaviour may be correlated with an increased likelihood to engage in other risk behaviours (Dryfoos, 1991; Galambos & Tilton-Weaver, 1998), compounding the negative consequences. Little, however, is known about predictors of such multiple risk activities (Galambos & Tilton-Weaver, 1998).

In this paper we use social capital as a framework within which to understand social influences on adolescent multiple risk-taking. Very generally, "social capital" refers to intangible resources inherent in the structure of social relations that contribute to minimizing, preventing and/or to solving common problems for individuals and communities (Coleman, 1988; 1990; Putnam, 2000). These resources include information channels, networks of reciprocity through which tangible resources can be sought, and norms of behaviour. Research on adolescent risk-taking has begun to refer to the concepts and processes inherent in social capital theory, however, a literature that explicitly applies the theory to adolescent risk-taking, is only beginning to emerge (Crosby, Holtgrave, DiClemente, Wingood, & Gayle, 2003; Denner, Kirby, Coyle, & Brindis, 2001; Furstenberg & Hughes, 1995; Gold, Kennedy, Connell, & Kawachi, 2002; Morrison, Howard, Hardy, & Stinson, 2005; Weitzman & Chen, 2005). There is little attention in this literature, however, to the ways in which social capital differentially affects patterns of risk behaviour between males and females. Accordingly, this study extends both the social capital literature and the adolescent risk-taking literature by using the concept to explain youth involvement in multiple risk activities, namely tobacco use, alcohol consumption (binge drinking), having multiple sexual intercourse partners and condom use, with a focus on different patterns between males and females. We examine the separate influences of social capital as conceptualized and operationalized based on the work of three leading theorists: Bourdieu (1986; 1990), Coleman (1988; 1990), and Putnam (2000).

In short, four interrelated questions are asked in this paper: (1) Is multiple risk-taking behaviour among adolescents related to their levels of available social capital? (2) How does the relationship between multiple risk-taking behaviour and social capital vary by gender? (3) Which of the three interpretations of social capital, Bourdieu's, Coleman's or Putnam's, best predicts adolescent risk-taking? and (4) What are the implications of these findings for further developing an understanding of social capital for adolescents? We draw upon cross-sectional data for Canadian youth aged 15 to 19 from the National Population Health Survey (NPHS), administered by Statistics Canada in 1996/1997.