Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Stress, Mental Health, And Substance Abuse Problems In A Sample Of Diversion Program Youths: An Exploratory Latent Class Analysis, Richard Dembo, Rhissa Briones-Robinson, Laura M. Gulledge, Lora M. Karas, Ken C. Winters, Steven Belenko, Paul Greenbaum

Faculty Publications

Reflective of interest in mental health and substance abuse issues among youths involved with the justice system, we performed a latent class analysis on baseline information collected on 100 youths involved in two diversion programs. Results identified two groups of youths: Group 1: a majority of the youths, who had high levels of delinquency, mental health, and substance abuse issues; and Group 2: youths with low levels of these problems. Comparison of these two groups on a variety of psychosocial measures and parent/guardian reports found differences between them that were consistent with their problem group classification. Follow-up analysis confirmed problem …