The over-representation of people with mental illness in the criminal justice system highlights the need for legislative reform and the implementation of programs breaking the cycle of mental illness, poverty, unemployment and substance abuse across Australia. Whilst there is no inherent association between mental illness and crime, there is a…

The authors describe a study of families in the Family Drug Treatment Court (FTDC), an effort to promote permanent placement for substance-exposed infants within time requirements mandated by the 1997 Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA). The purpose of the study was to evaluate parent functioning after FTDC involvement, infant developmental…

Substance abuse is a major problem encountered by social workers in all settings. This study investigated the impact of a postmaster's program in the treatment of substance-abusing clients on the domains of "Attitudes and Values," "Knowledge and Skills," and "Behaviors" of its graduates. Overall, 91 percent of…

For the study reported here, the authors used growth mixture modeling to analyze changes in alcohol and marijuana use and the use of drug and alcohol treatment services for a sample of 180 adolescents with serious emotional disturbance (ages 12-14 years at the beginning of the 7-year longitudinal study). Three latent classes of substance users…

Substance abuse is a primary concern for youth worldwide and increasingly so for Native American youth. Guided by theoretical models of the socialization of substance use in children and adolescents, we conducted a preliminary examination of socialization factors specific to Native American youth. Strong, pro-social bonds with three primary…

Child sexual assault is a risk factor for a wide range of emotional and behavioral problems. Little is known about mental health functioning in relation to victims' decisions to tell someone (or not) about their assault. This study used data from a nationally representative sample of 4,023 adolescents to examine the relation between sexual assault…

This study was designed to identify predictors of relationship outcomes among 179 young (ages 14-24) coparenting couples during the transition to parenthood, with a particular focus on interpersonal process and psychopathology. Findings indicated that couples identified as hostile during the prenatal assessment were more likely to report…

Growing evidence suggests that lesbian, gay, and bisexual adults may be at elevated risk for mental health and substance use disorders, possibly due to anti-gay stigma. Little of this work has examined putative excess morbidity among ethnic/racial minorities resulting from the experience of multiple sources of discrimination. The authors report…

Risk factors for suicidal ideation and attempts have been shown to differ between African Americans and Whites across the lifespan. In the present study, risk factors for suicidality were examined separately by race/ethnicity in a population of 131 older adult patients considered vulnerable to suicide due to substance abuse and/or medical frailty.…

Older adult women age 55+ years (N = 549) were interviewed as part of a population-based epidemiological research study of lifetime experiences with physical and sexual assault and current mental health problems. Although overall rates of psychopathology were low, producing very small cells for comparison, women who reported experiencing physical…

This article describes the results of the first Practice Research Network (PRN) survey conducted by the National Association of Social Workers, a collaborative project funded by the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment. The objectives of the PRN survey were to develop broad knowledge about social work practices and more specific knowledge about…

This 4-year study of 698 young adolescents examined the covariates of early onset substance use from Grade 6 through Grade 9. The youth were randomly assigned to a family-centered Adolescent Transitions Program (ATP) condition. Variable-centered (zero-inflated Poisson growth model) and person-centered (latent growth mixture model) approaches were…

This study examined patterns of between-generation continuity in substance use from generation 1 (G1) parents to generation 2 (G2) adolescents and from G2 adult substance use and G1 substance use to generation 3 (G3) problem behavior in childhood. Structural equation modeling of prospective, longitudinal data from 808 participants, their parents,…

Religion plays a significant role in human life, yet its potential to influence health and health-related conditions is not well studied. This article cites several studies that examine the correlation between religiosity and substance abuse. This article also suggests that more systematic researches are needed to validate the correlation of…

In 1991, a study was conducted to evaluate intake assessment at the various adolescent alcohol and drug treatment centers in Washington State. The three goals of this study were: (1) investigate the level of agreement among drug treatment professionals on the placement of adolescents in different treatment programs; (2) evaluate the existing…