@article{ref1,
title="The longitudinal associations between substance use, crime, and social risk among emerging adults: a longitudinal within and between-person latent variables analysis",
journal="Drug and alcohol dependence",
year="2016",
author="Merrin, Gabriel J. and Davis, Jordan P. and Berry, Daniel and D'Amico, Elizabeth J. and Dumas, Tara M.",
volume="165",
number="",
pages="71-78",
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. <br><br>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. <br><br>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. <br><br>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.<br><br>Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0376-8716",
doi="10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2016.05.009",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2016.05.009"
}