Chunk #22 — Results — Effect of the Conditioned Models on Risky Sex at Age 16, Controlling for Race, Conduct Problems, Impulsivity, Menarche and Poverty
Finally, the mediating effects of alcohol use on the relationships between distal predictors and risky sex were tested. The results showed specific indirect effects for race on risky sex at age 16 via the intercept of alcohol use (β=−.10, p<.01) and the rate of change in alcohol use (β=−.095, p<.05). Thus, initial level of alcohol use and a faster rate of increase in alcohol use mediated the relationship between European American girls and the likelihood of engaging in risky sex at age 16 years. However a direct effect of race also remained (β=.24, p<.001) indicating that African American girls engaged in higher rates of risky sex, and this was not explained by initial levels or change in alcohol use (see Fig. 2). The results also showed that use of alcohol at age 12 mediated the effects of early menarche on subsequent risky sex (β=.09, p<.01), and there was a trend for a mediating effect of rate of increase in alcohol use on the association between early menarche status and risky sex outcome (β=− .11, p=.063). Neither initial level of alcohol,
