NCJ Number
108759
Journal
Drug and Alcohol Dependence Volume: 15 Dated: (1985) Pages: 181-191
Date Published
1985
Length
11 pages
Annotation
Interviews with (1) 104 youths convicted of underage alcohol offenses in a Toronto, Canada, court; (2) 30 juveniles charged with a criminal offense, and (3) 31 other youths with no convictions revealed heavy alcohol use and its attendant problems in both young drinking offenders (YDO's) and delinquents.
Abstract
Interviews were conducted between July 17, 1979, and July 11, 1980. Only individuals 19 years or younger participated. The questionnaire gathered information on attitude and social environment, drinking behavior and drinking problems, previous drug use, and previous delinquent/criminal offenses. Measures of drinking behavior revealed no differences between YDO's and delinquents. Both groups, however, showed heavier drinking patterns and more alcohol-related problems than the comparison group. Delinquents and YDO's displayed less favorable attitudes toward the law, more positive attitudes toward marijuana use, and substantially more use of drugs than the comparison youths. The two groups differed somewhat in their previous legal problems. YDO's were similar to controls in social environment factors. They were distinguished from delinquents by being more likely to live in the parental home, more likely to be attending school, and more likely to have a mother working in a white-collar occupation. The article proposes that the deviant behavior displayed by YDO's and delinquents may be caused by similar underlying processes which can be modified by social environment factors. Tables and 18 references.