Browsing by Subject "nuorisorikollinen"

Objectives. The aim of the study was to examine the influence of family and peer relations on the incidence of substance use disorders in juvenile offenders. The studies so far have mainly focused on the associations between adolescents' social relations and early substance experimentation and amount of substance use but there are only few studies that have examined the social aspects of adolescents with substance use disorders. This study aimed to find out whether the social aspects that studies have found to be associated with substance use also come up in the sample of juvenile offenders with substance use disorders, and if there were factors that protect from substance use disorders. Methods. The participants in this study were drawn from an American study, The Pathways to Desistance. The 1354 participants were enrolled into the study between November 2000 and January 2003 from the juvenile and adult court systems in Mericopa County and Philadelphia County. The participants were between 14 and 18 years old at the time of their committing offense. The 1302 participants that had answered the questionnaires regarding substance use disorders were included in this study. The participants were divided into two groups: adolescents that had had substance use disorders and to adolescents that had never had substance use disorders. The groups were compared by factors relating to family and peer relations cross-sectionally with logistic regression analysis. Results and conclusions. According to the results, maternal hostility, parents' drug problems and antisocial behavior and influence of the peers were associated with the group of substance use disorders. Factors that protect from substance use disorders were high paternal warmth, parental knowledge and parental monitoring. These results support the earlier findings of the importance of social relations in adolescents' substance use and also raise hypotheses of possible factors influencing the development of substance use disorders. It is highly important to be aware of the risk factors influencing young adolescents' substance use so that it is possible to create early interventions and prevent future problems.