Sex, Drugs, and Mental Health: Link Between Adolescents with Depressive/Anxious Symptoms and Health Risk Behaviors

With adults suffering the consequences of health risk behaviors, including substance use disorders and unplanned pregnancies, research has focused on adolescent development for insight into preventing these outcomes. One area of interest is examining how individuals with depression and anxiety differentially engage in health risk behaviors like substance use and risky sexual activity. While previous research has determined individuals with these mood disorders are more likely to engage in health risk behaviors, they have failed to link engagement to a broader group of individuals. Because of this, the present study attempts to use a more general measure of depression and anxiety, described as internalizing problems, to capture individuals with subclinical levels of these mood disorders. We discovered statistically significant correlations between somatic complaints (a subscale of internalizing problems) and health risk behaviors. This relationship was consistent for males, females, and some SES backgrounds. These findings revealed that somatic complaints may provide a robust measure of health risk behavior engagement and could be used in clinical settings to screen adolescents. While these findings cannot inform about the mechanisms of this relationship, they indicate areas to focus on for prevention and interventions.