The Relationship Between Community Violence and Risky Drug Behavior

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore how variations in a child’s environment may moderate the relation between community violence and risky behaviors. As an initial test, the study explores the relation between rural, suburban, and urban communities and drug use at two selection points, 6th and 10th grade. The data indicate that while there are variations in drug use patterns across locations, conditioned by sex and age, in 6th grade, many of these differences disappear 4 years later. However, at both time points, the presence of heavy drug use is limited to a minority of participants, skewing patterns. Follow up work will incorporate variation in community violence into the analyses to see if we can further refine these relations.

Full Article

Brown - Community Violence and Risky Drug Behavior