The Association between Substance Abuse and Sexual Misconduct among Macau Youths

T. Wing Lo, John W. L. Tse, Christopher H. K. Cheng and Gloria H. Y. Chan
Additional contact information
T. Wing Lo: Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
John W. L. Tse: Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Christopher H. K. Cheng: Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Gloria H. Y. Chan: School of Social Sciences, Caritas Institute of Higher Education, Hong Kong, China

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 9, 1-17

Abstract: This study investigates how peer influence, school attachment, and substance abuse are related to sexual behavior, with particular interest in exploring the relationship between substance abuse and sexual misconduct, while using a stratified random sample of adolescents in Macau. Mediation analyses were employed. The results show that substance abuse, apart from susceptibility to peer influence and school attachment/commitment, was significantly related to sexual misconduct. Substance abuse was the best predictor of sexual misconduct, and it significantly mediated the relationship between susceptibility to peer influence, as well as school attachment and sexual misconduct. This reflects that the use of substances, including drugs, alcohol, and cigarettes, can be viewed as a catalyst for triggering engagement in sexual misconduct. The implications of this study involve taking measures to reduce the rate of substance abuse as a way of decreasing sexual misconduct in adolescents. Future research directions in exploring the relationship between adolescent substance abuse and risky sexual behavior are discussed.

Keywords: peer influence; school attachment; substance abuse; sexual behavior; youth; Macau (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/9/1643/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/9/1643/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:9:p:1643-:d:230240

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().