Relationships Between Delinquency and Substance Use Among Adolescents Emancipating from Foster Care

Abstract

Adolescents emancipating from foster care exhibit high rates of both delinquency and substance use, although it is less clear how these behaviors relate to one another. We aimed to examine the reciprocal relationships between these risk behaviors while accounting for relevant child welfare factors. We use data from the Multi-Site Evaluation of Foster Youth Programs to explore longitudinal associations between delinquent behaviors and substance use (tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana) among youths ages 17 and 18 (N = 429). Delinquency at age 17 was a positive predictor of substance use at age 18, after controlling for baseline use of substances. In contrast, substance use at age 17 was not predictive of increased delinquency at age 18 after baseline delinquency was controlled. Findings indicate that among youths emancipating from the foster care system, delinquent behavior might increase vulnerability for future substance use, as opposed to the latter.

KEYWORDS:

• adolescents
• aging out
• delinquency
• foster care
• substance use

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The data used in this publication were made available by the National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, and have been used with permission. Data from the Multi-Site Evaluation of Foster Youth Programs (Chafee Independent Living Evaluation Project), 2001–2010, were originally collected by Mark E. Courtney, Matthew W. Stagner, and Michael Pergamit.

Notes

¹ For purposes of consistency, the term substance use refers to the use of any legal and illegal substances.

² Two NSCAW studies have been conducted to date (NSCAW I started in 1999, and NSCAW II started in 2008).

³ In negative binominal regression, OR represents the percentage change (i.e., increase or decrease) in the dependent variable as a function of each unit of increase in the independent variable, holding other variables constant.

Additional information

Funding

Funding for the project was provided by the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation and the Children’s Bureau Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, DC (Award Number 233-02-0059). The collector(s) of the original data, the funder(s), NDACAN, Cornell University, and their agents or employees bear no responsibility for the analyses or interpretations presented here.