Citation

Oh S, Dinitto DM, Powers DA. Am. J. Public Health 2020; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Affiliation

Sehun Oh is with The Ohio State University College of Social Work, Columbus. Diana M. DiNitto is with the Steve Hicks School of Social Work, University of Texas at Austin. Daniel A. Powers is with the Department of Sociology, University of Texas at Austin.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, American Public Health Association)

DOI

10.2105/AJPH.2020.305631

PMID

32298178

Abstract

Objectives. To examine spillover effects of job skills training (vs basic services only [e.g., adult basic education, job readiness training]) on substance misuse among low-income youths with employment barriers.Methods. Data came from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, a longitudinal cohort study of youths born between 1980 and 1984 in the United States. Based on respondents' reports of substance misuse (past-month binge drinking and past-year marijuana and other illicit drug use) from 2000 to 2016, we estimated substance misuse trajectories of job skills training (n = 317) and basic services (n = 264) groups. We accounted for potential selection bias by using inverse probability of treatment weighting.Results. Compared with the basic services group, the job skills training group showed notable long-term reductions in its illicit drug misuse trajectory, translating to a 56.9% decrease in prevalence rates from 6.5% in year 0 to 2.8% in year 16.Conclusions. Job skills training can be an important service component for reducing substance misuse and improving employment outcomes among youths with economic disadvantages and employment barriers. (Am J Public Health. Published online ahead of print April 16, 2020: e1-e7. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2020.305631).

Language: en