Citation

Tubman JG, Gil AG, Wagner EF. Crim. Justice Behav. 2004; 31(4): 463-488.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2004, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0093854804265178

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Self-reported substance use and delinquent behavior were assessed yearly, 3 times beginning in the sixth or seventh grade, for a multiethnic sample of middle school students (n= 5,045). Both substance use and delinquent behavior became more prevalent across early adolescence, but only a small fraction of adolescents were using illicit substances at the end of the study. The proportion of adolescents reporting neither substance use nor delinquent behavior dropped significantly in contrast to the proportion reporting both behaviors. Co-occurring problem behaviors were associated with significantly higher mean levels of each behavior, with increasing group differences over time. In addition, more persistent copatterning of substance use and delinquency was associated with significantly higher levels of nearly every indicator of these problem behaviors at Year 3.

Language: en