Substance Use, Mental Health, and Child Welfare Profiles of Juvenile Justice-Involved Commercially Sexually Exploited Youth

Objectives: To describe the substance use profiles of youth impacted by commercial sexual exploitation (CSE) and explore associations between substance use with mental health diagnoses and child welfare involvement. Methods: Data were systematically extracted from the court files of 364 youth who pa...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology Vol. 30; no. 6; pp. 389 - 397
Main Authors:	Bath, Eraka, Barnert, Elizabeth, Godoy, Sarah, Hammond, Ivy, Mondals, Sangeeta, Farabee, David, Grella, Christine
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Los Angeles, CA Mary Ann Liebert Inc 01.07.2020 SAGE Publications Mary Ann Liebert, Inc Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers
Subjects:	Adolescent Behavior Behavioral and Social Science Biomedical and Clinical Sciences Brain Disorders Cannabis Child Welfare Child Welfare - ethnology Child Welfare - statistics & numerical data Clinical Research commercial sexual exploitation Developmental & Child Psychology Drug Abuse (NIDA only) Drug use Emotional disorders Exploitation Female Good Health and Well Being Human Trafficking Human Trafficking - psychology Humans Justice and Strong Institutions Juvenile Delinquency Juvenile Delinquency - ethnology Juvenile Delinquency - statistics & numerical data Juvenile justice Los Angeles Los Angeles - epidemiology Male Marijuana Mental Disorders Mental Disorders - diagnosis Mental Disorders - ethnology Mental Health Methamphetamine Mood Mood disorders Original Paediatrics Parole & probation Peace Pediatric Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Sciences Public health Resilience (Psychology) Sex crimes Sex industry sex trafficking Substance Misuse Substance use Substance-Related Disorders Substance-Related Disorders - epidemiology Substance-Related Disorders - ethnology Trauma Violence Violence Research youth Los Angeles United States > US substance use sex trafficking commercial sexual exploitation mental health juvenile justice youth
ISSN:	1044-5463, 1557-8992, 1557-8992
Online Access:	Get full text
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Summary:	Objectives: To describe the substance use profiles of youth impacted by commercial sexual exploitation (CSE) and explore associations between substance use with mental health diagnoses and child welfare involvement. Methods: Data were systematically extracted from the court files of 364 youth who participated between 2012 and 2016 in Los Angeles County's Succeeding Through Achievement and Resilience (STAR) Court, a juvenile delinquency specialty court for youth impacted by CSE. Descriptive statistics and multivariate regression analyses were conducted to quantify associations between youths' substance use with mental health diagnoses and child welfare involvement. Results: Of the 364 youth impacted by CSE involved in the STAR Court, 265 youth had documented contact with a psychiatrist while in court—of whom, 73% were diagnosed with at least one mental health challenge. Before STAR Court participation, 74% of youth were the subject of one or more child welfare referral; of these youth, 75% had prior out-of-home care. Eighty-eight percent of youth reported substance use, the most prevalent illicit substances were marijuana (87%), alcohol (54%), and methamphetamine (33%). Controlling for age and race, youth impacted by CSE with a diagnosed general mood disorder had more than five times the odds of reporting substance use compared with those without a mood disorder diagnosis (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]: 5.80; 95% confidence interval CI: 2.22–18.52; p < 0.001); and youth impacted by CSE with prior child welfare placements had more than two times the odds of reporting substance use (AOR: 2.24; 95% CI: 1.04–4.86; p = 0.039) compared with youth without prior placements. The association between substance use and general mood disorder was significant and positive for all substance use types (AOR = 3.3, p = 0.033 marijuana; AOR = 4.01, p = 0.011 concurrent alcohol and marijuana; AOR = 9.2, p < 0.001, polysubstance use). Conclusions: High prevalence of substance use among juvenile justice-involved youth impacted by CSE combined with strong associations between substance use with both mental health diagnoses and child welfare system history underscores the need for comprehensive, specialized substance use treatment. Findings suggest an important opportunity for multidisciplinary collaboration among mental health providers, child welfare professionals, juvenile justice practitioners, and other care providers for these youth.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 14 content type line 23 Funding: This work was supported by National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) of the National Institutes of Health under the AACAP NIDA K12 program (2016–2020; Grant #K12DA000357) and NIDA K23 (#DA045747-01); Seed Grant from the UCLA Children's Discovery and Innovation Institute (2015–2016); Anthony and Jeanne Pritzker Family Foundation; California Community Foundation; Los Angeles County Department of Probation; Judicial Council of California; and UCLA Clinical and Translational Science Institute (#UL1TR000124).
ISSN:	1044-5463 1557-8992 1557-8992
DOI:	10.1089/cap.2019.0057