Jessor and Jessor (1977) developed the Problem-Behavior Theory (PBT) to explain adolescents’ involvement in socially undesirable behaviors (Jessor & Jessor, 1977). The associations between the various behaviors are due to an underlying predisposition for unconventiality (Jessor & Jessor, 1977), meaning those adolescents engaging in one of the behaviors are likely to engage in other risky behaviors. Expanding on PBT, Bartlett, Holditch-Davis, and Belyea (2005) found three clusters of adolescents’ risky behaviors (e.g., alcohol use, unprotected sexual intercourse, having sexual intercourse while under the influence of alcohol or other drugs, lying to parents): normal cluster (meaning low levels of participation in risky behaviors); problem cluster (meaning higher prevalence of the risky behaviors); and deviant cluster (meaning the highest prevalence of the risky behaviors). Even though the adolescents in the normal cluster reported lowest prevalence of the risky behaviors, they still reported significant alcohol use, as did those in the problem and deviant clusters.
