Substance Use Pathways Among Female Adolescent Offenders

Vera Lopez, Albert Kopak, Lisa Pasko

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

This study tested a general strain theory (GST) model across two times with an ethnically diverse sample of 184 female adolescent offenders. We tested whether exposure to violence was associated with girls’ emotions and substance use. We found that (a) hostility mediated the relationship between experiencing violence and alcohol use at Time 1; (b) hostility mediated the relationship between witnessing violence and alcohol use at Time 1; and (c) depressive symptoms mediated the relationship between experiencing violence and marijuana use at Time 2. These mediated effects were minimal in magnitude given that that the bivariate relationships between violence exposure and substance use were small or nonsignificant. Exposure to violence was associated with negative emotions across both models.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)375-400
Number of pages26
JournalCrime and Delinquency
Volume65
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 1 2019

Keywords

  • exposure to violence
  • female adolescent offenders
  • general strain theory
  • pathways theory
  • substance use

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Pathology and Forensic Medicine
  • Law

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