Role of Family Factors, Physical Abuse, and Sexual Victimization Experiences in High Risk Youths' Alcohol and Drug Use and Delinquency: A Longitudinal Model

• NCJ Number: 136842
• Author(s): R Dembo; L Williams; J Schmeidler; W Wothke; C H Brown
• Date Published: 1992
• Length: 47 pages
• Grant Number(s): 1-RO1-DA06657-01
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute on Drug Abuse
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Longitudinal data collected since 1986 on a cohort of juvenile detainees in Florida was used to construct and test a developmental damage model linking the youths' family factors and personal experience of sexual victimization and physical abuse to their alcohol and drug use and delinquency.

Abstract

The structural model used represented the youths' socioeconomic status, parental presence in the household, family psychosocial problems, family contact with the criminal justice system, sexual victimization, and physical abuse as interrelated experiences. Autoregressive relationships are hypothesized to exist between alcohol and other drug use and delinquency over time. Overall, the hypothesized relationships were supported by the data, particularly with regard to the subjects' use of marijuana and hashish. While few differences were found between the male and female youths in regard to various variables, there were some differences between black and white male youths. The results indicate that family problems and youths' early abuse experiences should play a more prominent role in theory and research on drug use and other delinquent behavior. 2 tables, 4 figures, and 53 references