Suchergebnisse

This study examines the long-term effect of corporal punishment on children's externalizing behaviors, and race differences in this relationship, using 12 years of prospective data from 1,075 high-risk White and African American families participating in the Longitudinal Studies of Child Abuse and Neglect. According to multilevel individual growth models, there was a significant, positive association between spanking during childhood (measured at ages 4, 6, and 8 years) and initial levels (at age 12 years) of externalizing behaviors for the full sample and for African Americans. The fixed effect of spanking on rates of change of externalizing behaviors during adolescence (i.e., at ages 12, 14, and 16 years) was significant for the full sample and marginally ( p < .10) significant for African Americans, with more spanking resulting in a slower rate of decrease in externalizing behaviors. Spanking was not related to initial levels or rates of change in externalizing behaviors for White youth.

Using Agnew's general strain theory (GST) as a theoretical framework, we make an argument that health problems are sources of strain that influence substance use. Health strain's influence on the initiation and frequency of substance use is then empirically investigated using two waves of data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). Results from logistic and zero inflated negative binomial (ZINB) regression models show that health related strains affect the initiation of marijuana, cocaine, and other drug use, but were inconsistently associated with the frequency of use of these substances. Adolescents with more frequent minor health problems experience greater levels of strain and may choose to cope with this strain through abusing both licit and illicit substances. In some instances negative affect mediates the effects of health strain on initiation and frequency of use. Study limitations and future directions for research on health strain are discussed.

Marijuana is the most widely used illegal substance in the world, and persistent and frequent use during adolescence has been associated with precocious transitions and deleterious consequences in adulthood. This study used a group-based trajectory approach to analyze panel data collected from 1,725 youth participating in the National Youth Study to describe pathways of marijuana use and to explore protective factors that may reduce the continuation of use. A trajectory approach allowed us to operationalize risk based on prior within-person patterns of self-reported marijuana use. Three trajectory groups of marijuana users were identified: chronic users (17%), rising users (40%), and abstainers (43%). Our results show that some protective factors are significantly associated with decreases in marijuana use for each trajectory group (e.g., parent disapproval and non-using peer associations), but others are significantly associated with decreases in marijuana for a particular trajectory group and not others (e.g., school attachment for chronic marijuana users). The implications of our findings are discussed for the risk and protective factor framework, as well as their importance in a society where opinions of marijuana are currently changing.

The frequent criticisms of the "gateway hypothesis" have led scholars to note the importance of considering the role of intra-individual change for drug use progression. While studies employing drug use trajectories have added considerably to our understanding of drug use comorbidity, the extent to which trajectories inform drug use progression remains largely unknown despite the fact that there are several theoretical reasons to suspect that intra-individual change is important to the gateway phenomenon. The current study employs latent class growth models using a sample from the Boys Town study of adolescent drug and drinking behavior. The results demonstrate that knowing how gateway drug use changes over time provides important information above and beyond knowing frequency of gateway use for predicting harder drug use trajectories. Implications of the empirical findings and directions for future research are discussed.

Among the challenges faced by Latin America at the onset of the 21st century is the increase in crime and violence that began in the mid-1980s, and which, to one degree or another, has afflicted most countries in the region. In this study we explore the potential implications of the upsurge in crime on migration by testing the hypothesis that crime victimization in Latin America increases the probability that people have given serious thought to the prospect of migrating with their families to the United States. Using Latinobarometro public opinion surveys of approximately 49,000 respondents residing in 17 countries in 2002, 2003, and 2004, the results of a Hierarchical Generalized Linear Model found that, net of individual and country-level control variables, the probability of seriously considering family migration to the United States was around 30 percent higher among respondents who reported that they or a member of their family was a victim of a crime sometime during the year prior to the survey. Evidence that victimization promotes the propensity to emigrate is a finding that contributes to an understanding of the transnational consequences of the increase in crime in Latin America, and adds a new variable to the inventory of factors that encourage people to migrate to the United States.