NCJ Number
182911
Journal
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs Volume: 32 Issue: 1 Dated: January-March 2000 Pages: 43-54
Date Published
2000
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This study describes the nature and scope of trauma exposure that characterized the lives of 414 adolescents remanded to the New York State Office of Children and Family Services for a violent offense and reports on an analysis of the links between trauma and substance use/misuse and illegal violent activities.
Abstract
A disproportionate stratified sampling plan was used to ensure adequate representation of subjects in each violent offense category. Eighty-eight percent of the 414 subjects were male. Sociodemographic variables of race/ethnicity, age, last grade completed in school, and location at time of arrest were reported by the youths. Semistructured interviews were conducted to generate detailed quantitative and qualitative information about each respondent's life, with attention to family life and community characteristics, traumatic events, involvement with gangs and guns, drug use, illegal activities, and the violent offense for which the youth was remanded. Findings on the linkage of trauma to substance use apparently support the notion of a self-medicating tendency among these youths when experiencing severe trauma. Particularly striking is the strong association between trauma and cocaine use, despite the relatively lower prevalence of lifetime cocaine use (compared to tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana); however, the confidence intervals were also the widest, indicating a lack of precision in the estimates due to low prevalence of cocaine use. Results, therefore, must be interpreted with this in mind. Discussion of these findings, their implications for understanding and intervening, and recommendations for future research are highlighted. 63 references