Citation

Merrin GJ, Davis JP, Berry D, D'Amico EJ, Dumas TM. Drug Alcohol Depend. 2016; 165: 71-78.

Affiliation

Huron University College at Western University, London, Ontario, Canada.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2016.05.009

PMID

27242288

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The reciprocal relationship between crime and substance use is well known. However, when examining this relationship, no study to date has disaggregated between- and within-person effects, which represents a more methodologically sound and developmentally-appropriate analytic approach. Further, few studies have considered the role of social risk (e.g., deviant peers, high-risk living situations) in the aforementioned relationship. We examined these associations in a group of individuals with heightened vulnerability to substance use, crime and social risk: emerging adults (aged 18-25 years) in substance use treatment.

METHODS: Participants were 3479 emerging adults who had entered treatment. We used auto-regressive latent growth models with structured residuals (ALT-SR) to examine the within-person cross-lagged association between crime and substance use and whether social risk contributed to this association. A taxonomy of nested models was used to determine the structural form of the data, within-person cross-lagged associations, and between-person associations.

RESULTS: In contrast to the extant literature on cross-lagged relations between crime and substance use, we found little evidence of such relations once between- and within-person relations were plausibly disaggregated. Yet, our results indicated that within-person increases in social risk were predictive of subsequent increases in crime and substance use. Post-hoc analyses revealed a mediation effect of social risk between crime and substance use.

CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest the need to re-think the association between crime and substance use among emerging adults. Individuals that remain connected to high-risk social environments after finishing treatment may represent a group that could use more specialized, tailored treatments.

Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Language: en