Pubertal timing and sexual risk behaviors among rural African American male youth: testing a model based on life history theory

Abstract

Life History Theory (LHT), a branch of evolutionary biology, describes how organisms maximize their reproductive success in response to environmental conditions. This theory suggests that challenging environmental conditions will lead to early pubertal maturation, which in turn predicts heightened risky sexual behavior. Although largely confirmed among female adolescents, results with male youth are inconsistent. We tested a set of predictions based on LHT with a sample of 375 African American male youth assessed three times from age 11 to age 16. Harsh, unpredictable community environments and harsh, inconsistent, or unregulated parenting at age 11 were hypothesized to predict pubertal maturation at age 13; pubertal maturation was hypothesized to forecast risky sexual behavior, including early onset of intercourse, substance use during sexual activity, and lifetime numbers of sexual partners. Results were consistent with our hypotheses. Among African American male youth, community environments were a modest but significant predictor of pubertal timing. Among those youth with high negative emotionality, both parenting and community factors predicted pubertal timing. Pubertal timing at age 13 forecast risky sexual behavior at age 16. Results of analyses conducted to determine whether environmental effects on sexual risk behavior were mediated by pubertal timing were not significant. This suggests that, although evolutionary mechanisms may affect pubertal development via contextual influences for sensitive youth, the factors that predict sexual risk behavior depend less on pubertal maturation than LHT suggests.

Fig. 1

Conceptual model of life history and environmental susceptibility hypotheses

Fig. 2

Structural equation model of the role of pubertal timing in connecting contextual influences with sexual risk behavior. χ² = 12.77, df = 14, p = .54. RMSEA = .01. CFI = .99. Standardized coefficients are shown. Wave 1 BMI is controlled. *p<.05. **p<.01

Fig. 3

Multigroup analysis predicting pubertal timing comparing high and low negative emotionality groups: χ² = 12.77, df = 14, p = .54. RMSEA = .01. CFI = .99. Standardized coefficients are shown. Wave 1 BMI is controlled. NE negative emotionality. *p<.05. **p<.01