Time Horizons, Drug Use, and Risky Sex in Young Women from Poor Urban Areas.

Abstract: Aims: Emerging adulthood, spanning adolescence into early adulthood, is marked by heightened substance use and sexual risk-taking, and emerging adults living in disadvantaged urban areas experience disproportionately more negative outcomes. Research on the social psychology of time perspective and the behavioral economics of substance use suggests that such impoverished environments contribute to development of a decision-making style characterized by devaluation of delayed rewards and outcomes that support adaptive functioning in favor of persistent preference for short-term rewards associated with longer term costs. This cross-sectional observational study investigated the hypothesis that substance use and sexual risk-taking among young African American women living in such communities were related to present-dominated time perspectives and higher delay discounting, which reflect relative preference for sooner typically smaller than later larger rewards. Methodology: Young African American women ages 15 – 25 (N = 223, M age = 20.4 years) from disadvantaged urban neighborhoods in the Southern United States were recruited using Respondent Driven Sampling, a peer-driven sampling method suitable for recruiting community-dwelling participants that compensates for biases of snowball sampling. In-person structured field interviews assessed substance use, sexual practices, and risk/protective factors, including time perspectives (Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory [ZTPI]) and behavioral impulsivity (delay discounting task). Multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine whether substance use and sexual risk-taking were associated with delay discounting and ZTPI present hedonistic and future time perspective subscales, controlling for several demographic characteristics. Results: As hypothesized, regression models showed that higher ZTPI present hedonism scores were significantly associated with both greater substance involvement and sexual risk-taking, whereas greater discounting was associated only with greater sexual risk-taking (ps <.05). Future time perspectives were not associated with either risk behavior. Conclusions: Risk behaviors among young women living in disadvantaged urban areas appear to be associated with hedonistic rewards available in the present without considering future outcomes. Future research should investigate experimentally whether lengthening time perspectives and promoting enriched views of possible futures may prevent and reduce substance involvement and sexual risk-taking among disadvantaged young adults. Those living in disadvantaged communities likely have great need for such interventions because they tend to have limited rewarding economic and social opportunities that can compete with present choices to use substances and engage in risky sex. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]