Risk-taking behaviors of homeless youth: moderation by parental monitoring and social support

Figures & data

Table 1. Bivariate correlations for unweighted variables.

Variable	1	2	3	4	5	6
1. Homelessness	–	−.01	.02	.11***	−.08***	.05*
2. Parental monitoring	–	–	−.06*	.11**	−.01	.02
3. Social support	–	–	–	−.05*	.09***	−.12***
4. Risk-taking	–	–	–	–	−.04	.01
5. Gender	–	–	–	–	–	.02
6. Race/ethnicity	–	–	–	–	–	–

Note: p < .05*, p < .01**, p < .001***.

Table 2. Group differences on demographic characteristics and study variables (weighted data).

	Homeless	Housed	Test statistic	p
Gender			1.44	.247
Female	3955 (44.3%)	164,684 (52.5%)
Male	4967 (55.7%)	148,835 (47.5%)
Race/ethnicity			1.18	.322
White	3788 (45.1%)	170,318 (55.0%)
African American	2632 (31.3%)	69,648 (22.5%)
Hispanic	1902 (22.6%)	58,783 (19.9%)
Other	79 (0.9%)	10,949 (3.5%)
Risk-taking behavior (mean; SE)	1.61 (.24)	0.79 (0.04)	11.93***	.001
Parental monitoring			0.05	.816
Yes	7512 (88.3%)	271,697 (86.8%)
No	997 (11.7%)	41,167 (13.2%)
Social support			2.99	.084
Yes	5810 (90.8%)	201,942 (82.3%)
No	591 (9.2%)	43,438 (17.7%)

Note: p < .05*, p < .01**, p < .001***.

Table 3. Results of regression analyses predicting risk-taking behaviors with parental monitoring as a moderator.

	Step 1		Step 2		Step 3
	b	SE	b	SE	b	SE
Constant	1.35***	0.08	1.68***	0.32	1.85***	0.31
Homelessness	0.76**	0.23	0.82**	0.28	−0.12	0.62
Gender	−0.13*	0.06	−0.13*	0.06	−0.13*	0.06
Black	0.11	0.06	0.09	0.07	0.09	0.06
Hispanic	0.04	0.09	0.04	0.09	0.05	0.09
Other	−0.25*	0.11	−0.28*	0.11	−0.28*	0.11
Parental monitoring			0.34*	0.11	0.37*	0.11
Parental monitoring × homelessness					1.08	0.75
R^2	0.02		0.03		0.03

Note: p < .05*, p < .01**, p < .001***.

Table 4. Results of regression analyses predicting risk-taking behaviors with social support as a moderator.

	Step 1		Step 2		Step 3
	b	SE	b	SE	b	SE
Constant	1.35***	0.08	1.32***	0.28	1.31***	0.27
Homelessness	0.76**	0.23	0.61**	0.27	−0.97***	0.09
Gender	−0.13*	0.06	−0.13*	0.06	−0.15*	0.06
Black	0.11	0.06	0.04	0.07	0.03	0.07
Hispanic	0.04	0.09	0.05	0.11	0.05	0.11
Other	−0.25*	0.11	−0.28*	0.11	−0.28*	0.11
Social support			−0.14	0.09	−0.17*	0.08
Social support × Homelessness					1.71***	0.31
R^2	0.02		0.03		0.03

Note: p < .05*, p < .01**, p < .001***.

Table 5. Group differences on sources of social support.

	Homeless	Housed	Odds ratio (95% CI)
Parent or other adult family member	2589 (40.4%)	56,019 (22.8%)	1.86 (0.85–4.1)
Teacher or other adult in school	367 (5.7%)	3561 (1.5%)	4.1 (0.89–18.58)
Other adult	736 (11.4%)	3616 (1.5%)	3.8 (0.61–23.6)
Friend	1897 (29.6%)	125,338 (51.1%)	0.36 (0.18–1.3)***
Sibling	221 (3.4%)	13,409 (5.5%)	0.56 (0.06–5.4)

Note: p < .05*, p < .01**, p < .001***.