Citation

Carney T, Myers BJ, Louw J, Lombard C, Flisher AJ. J. Adolesc. 2013; 36(3): 447-455.

Affiliation

Alcohol and Drug Abuse Research Unit, Medical Research Council, 7505 Cape Town, South Africa. Electronic address: tara.carney@mrc.ac.za.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.adolescence.2013.01.004

PMID

23453849

Abstract

Research has shown a positive relationship between substance use and delinquent-type behaviours among adolescents. The aim of this study is to explore the temporal relationships between these outcomes through secondary data analysis of a longitudinal study of high-school students' risk behaviours. Two regression models were compared and gender, socioeconomic status and repeating a grade were found to be consistent predictors of delinquent-type behaviour. Alcohol (OR: 1.26, CI: 1.02-1.55, p = 0.03) and drug use (OR: 1.10, CI: 1.03-1.16, p = 0.002) in the ordinal regression models were significantly associated with delinquent-type behaviours at Time 2 only. A transition model use was then used to measure delinquent-type behaviours as predicted by the previous time period, and results indicated that gender and delinquency were predictive of delinquency. Smoking also significantly interacted with delinquent-type behaviour to increase future risk of this behaviour. The findings point to the need for intervening early with adolescents who show delinquent-type behaviour.

Language: en