Citation

Dembo R, Briones R, Gulledge LM, Karas L, Winters KC, Belenko S, Greenbaum PE. J. Child Adolesc. Subst. Abuse 2012; 21(2): 130-155.

Affiliation

University of South Florida, Department of Criminology, Tampa, Florida.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2012, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/1067828X.2012.662115

PMID

22685378

Abstract

Reflective of interest in mental health and substance abuse issues among youths involved with the justice system, we performed a latent class analysis on baseline information collected on 100 youths involved in two diversion programs. Results identified two groups of youths: Group 1: a majority of the youths, who had high levels of delinquency, mental health and substance abuse issues, Group 2: youths with low levels of these problems. Comparison of these two groups on a variety of psychosocial measures and parent/guardian reports found differences between them that were consistent with their problem group classification. Follow-up analysis confirmed problem behavior that was consistent with the youths' latent class placement. Implications of the findings for research and practice will be presented.

Language: en