Abstract:
Criminal offending and mental health problems often co-occur. This study examined competing models to understand bidirectional associations between crime and mental health problems over time among at-risk men in the U.S. It was hypothesized that there would be significant cross-lagged associations of offending and mental health problems in early adulthood. Longitudinal data were drawn from 206 at-risk men enrolled in the Oregon Youth Study. Random intercept cross-lagged models examined bidirectional associations between mental health problems (assessed with the 53-item Brief Symptom Inventory) and self-reported offending in early adulthood across 6 time points from ages 19-20 to 29-30 years. Sociodemographic factors, prior levels, and common risk factors (i.e., parents\' criminality, mental health problems, and socioeconomic status, as well as child age, antisocial propensity, and internalizing behaviors) were controlled during analysis. A robust association between mental health problems and offending was found for the early adult period, especially for total and violence offenses. Findings did not support the hypothesized positive cross-lagged effects. Instead, two cross-lagged effects emerged indicating that offending was inversely related to subsequent mental health problems. Childhood antisocial propensity and internalizing behaviors emerged as important predictors of stable between-person level differences in offending and mental health problems, respectively, although results differed as a function of offense categories (total, violence, property, drug). Findings indicate that the relation between mental health problems and offending is unidirectional, temporal, and partially spurious. Preventing child internalizing behaviors and child antisocial behaviors holds promise for reducing early adult mental health problems and offending.
摘要:
犯罪和心理健康问题经常同时发生。这项研究调查了竞争模型,以了解美国高危男性随着时间的推移犯罪与心理健康问题之间的双向关联据推测,在成年早期,犯罪和心理健康问题会有明显的交叉滞后关联。纵向数据来自参加俄勒冈青年研究的206名高危男性。随机截距交叉滞后模型研究了从19-20岁到29-30岁的6个时间点的成年早期心理健康问题(用53项简要症状清单评估)与自我报告的冒犯之间的双向关联。社会人口因素,先前的水平,和常见的风险因素(即,父母犯罪,心理健康问题,和社会经济地位,以及儿童年龄,反社会倾向,和内化行为)在分析过程中受到控制。在成年早期发现了心理健康问题与犯罪之间的紧密关联,尤其是全面和暴力犯罪。研究结果不支持假设的正交叉滞后效应。相反,出现了两个交叉滞后效应,表明冒犯与随后的心理健康问题成反比。儿童期反社会倾向和内化行为是在冒犯和心理健康问题上稳定的人与人之间水平差异的重要预测因素,分别,尽管结果因犯罪类别而异(总计,暴力,property,药物)。研究结果表明,心理健康问题和犯罪之间的关系是单向的,temporal,部分虚假。预防儿童内化行为和儿童反社会行为有望减少早期成人心理健康问题和冒犯。