Risk and Protective Factors Associated with Opiate Misuse Among Young Adults with a History of Serious Violent...

Investigating understudied risk and protective factors for opiate misuse among young adults who were serious violent juvenile offenders may inform prevention and intervention strategies. Young adults misuse opiates at higher rates than other age groups, with a history of serious violent juvenile offending constituting an especially high-risk population.

Our study uses data from the Pathways to Desistance prospective study of serious juvenile offenders, which includes participants from Phoenix, Arizona (n = 549) and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (n = 483). Participants were enrolled between November 2000 and January 2003 and followed for seven years until April 2010. First, we conducted bivariate analyses using Chi-square analyses and simple logistic regression. Then, we conducted a multiple logistic regression model to determine whether the following variables would influence the odds of young adult opiate misuse (during wave 11) violence exposure and victimization (during wave 8), a PTSD diagnosis (during wave 9), maternal warmth (during wave 1), moral disengagement (during wave 11), identifying as White, Hispanic, and/or male.

We found that young adults exposed to violence and/or victimized (OR = 1.17, p = .029), those with PTSD (OR = 4.18, p = .039), those who were morally disengaged (OR = 8.11, p = 000), those who were White (OR = 7.27, p = .000) and those who were Hispanic (OR = 2.26, p = .024) were more likely to misuse opiates. Maternal warmth did not protect against opiate misuse.

Our study underscores the important role trauma, particularly PTSD, plays in predicting opiate misuse.