Identifying subgroups of adolescent substance use and delinquency in South Africa

说明(由申请人提供)：南非的情况是青少年吸毒和犯罪的高风险之一。种族隔离后的环境包括重大的政治、经济和社会变化、歧视和日益增多的暴力。重要的是要了解青少年吸毒和犯罪是如何独立发展的，以及这些行为是如何在这种背景下共同发生的。目前的研究将对南非青少年的药物使用和犯罪行为，特别是他们使用甲基苯丙胺的研究做出独特的贡献。这项研究的目的是确定共生的青少年吸毒者和违法者的潜在类别(亚组)，并检查这些亚组如何随着时间的推移而变化。目前的研究结果对预防研究和公共卫生有两个主要影响。首先，更好地了解南非青少年吸毒和犯罪是如何发生的，可能会为南非其他地区高风险环境下预防计划的设计提供理论依据。其次，使用以人为本的方法来研究青少年的药物使用和犯罪行为可能会提供对青少年可能亚群的独特洞察，影响项目是否选择针对特定的危险行为而不是多种危险行为。 公共卫生相关性：应用创新的统计方法可能是更好地理解青少年吸毒和犯罪并存的一种方式。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The South African context is one of high risk for adolescent substance use and delinquency. The post-Apartheid environment consists of major political, economic, and social changes, discrimination and increasing violence. It is important to understand how adolescent substance use and delinquency develop independently as well as how these behaviors co-occur in this context. The current study will uniquely contribute to research on substance use and delinquent behaviors among South African adolescents, and in particular, on their methamphetamine use. The research study aims to identify latent classes (subgroups) of co-occurring adolescent substance users and delinquents and to examine how these subgroups change over time. Results of the current study have two major implications for prevention research and public health. First, better understanding of how adolescent substance use and delinquency occur in South Africa may inform the theory underlying the design of prevention programs in high risk contexts in other parts of South Africa. Second, using a person-oriented approach toward the study of adolescent substance use and delinquency may provide unique insight into possible subgroups of adolescents, affecting whether programs choose to target specific risk behaviors versus multiple risk behaviors. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The application of innovative statistical methods may be one way to better understand co-occurring adolescent substance use and delinquency.