Gender Differences in Employment Among Drug Court Participants: The Influence of Peer Relations and Friendship Network

ABSTRACT

The research literature has identified gender differences in employment with substance-using women less likely to obtain and maintain employment when compared to men. The purpose of this study was to examine the association among gender, employment, peer relations, and friendship network among a sample of substance-using offenders in 2 drug court programs. This study examined the extent to which peer relations and friendship network helped to explain gender differences in employment. Overall, findings indicated that men reported more days of legal employment than did women during the 6 months before drug court. Furthermore, casual friendship network measures were positively correlated with self-reported illegal employment for both female and male drug court participants, but close friendship network measures were negatively correlated with illegal employment among the women. Findings are discussed for treatment and employment implications for substance-using offenders.

KEYWORDS:

• Employment
• gender
• substance use
• offenders
• peer relations

This project was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse grant #RO1-13076, Leukefeld PI.