The development of anxiety symptomatology among juvenile offenders: the roles of maternal substance abuse and unemployment.

Abstract

This research examined the development of anxiety across adolescence and early adulthood among a sample of juvenile offenders comprising males and females. In addition, despite the understanding of maternal substance abuse and maternal unemployment as risk factors predicting development of anxiety, this research examined the interaction between these two characteristics for doing so. Analyses used group-based trajectory modelling to provide descriptive representation of general developmental patterns of anxiety. Next, a series of multinomial logistic regression models were estimated to examine the effects of baseline covariates on the relative risk of assignment to the elucidated trajectory groups. A three-group model best fit the data, comprising low, moderate, and high anxiety trajectory groups. Results from the regression models indicate that the interaction between maternal unemployment and maternal substance abuse history significantly increased the risk of assignment to the high anxiety group.