2014 · Study · English
Effects of the Communities That Care System on Cross-Sectional Profiles of Adolescent Substance Use and Delinquency
Van Horn, M. L., Fagan, A. A., Hawkins, J. D., & Oesterle, S.
Van Horn, M. L., Fagan, A. A., Hawkins, J. D., & Oesterle, S. (2014). Effects of the Communities That Care System on Cross-Sectional Profiles of Adolescent Substance Use and Delinquency. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 47(2), 188–197. doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2014.04.004
Summary
Cross-sectional outcome analysis in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine of CTC effects on behaviour profiles rather than single measures. In the 24-community randomised trial, anonymous surveys of 14,099 eighth- and tenth-graders in 2004 and 2010 were used to derive four latent profiles of substance use and delinquency in grade 8 and five in grade 10, and to test whether the distribution of profiles differed between CTC and control communities in 2010. There was no intervention effect on the probability of being an experimenter with substances or of combining substance use with delinquency in either grade. Tenth-graders in CTC communities were, however, significantly less likely to be alcohol users (OR = 0.69; CI 0.48–1.00). The authors argue that a community-wide reduction in adolescent alcohol use matters because alcohol is the most used substance and early initiation predicts adult alcohol disorders, while stating plainly that the absence of effects on experimenters qualifies the result.