Background

Adverse Childhood Experiences are associated with worse outcomes in delinquency and substance use.

Objective

Current research is overwhelmingly from Western perspectives, leaving a gap in non-Western, low crime-rate jurisdictions. Moreover, there exists a gap in characterizing the effect of ACE frequency on delinquency. We extend existing research by examining relationships between ACE and substance use in youth offenders in Singapore.

Participants and setting

The study included 790 youth offenders (669 males, M_age = 17.59 years) from a longitudinal study on youth offending.

Methods

Multiple regression was performed to examine relationships between self-reported ACEs and substance use. Latent Class Analysis was conducted to identify classes of substance use onset. The relationship between these classes and cumulative ACEs and ACE frequency were then tested using multiple regression.

Results

Youth offenders who consume alcohol (B = 0.66, p = .002) and illicit drugs (B = 0.38, p = .02) had more cumulative and more frequent ACEs than those who do not. Moreover, we found a positive relationship between ACEs and substance use frequency. Those who started taking substances in childhood had significantly more ACEs and had worse drug dependency problems than those who started later (t = 5.93, p < .0001). Additionally, there was a positive relationship between ACEs and drug use dependency (B = 0.11, p = .03).

Conclusions

Our findings highlight the importance of ACEs as risk factors for substance use. This underscores the need for comprehensive screening and treatment of ACEs and substance use in the rehabilitative context.

中文翻译：

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新加坡青少年罪犯的不良童年经历与药物滥用之间的关系

背景

不良的童年经历与犯罪和药物滥用的不良后果有关。

客观的

目前的研究绝大多数是从西方的角度来看的，在非西方的、低犯罪率的司法管辖区留下了空白。此外，在描述 ACE 频率对犯罪的影响方面存在差距。我们通过检查新加坡青少年罪犯的 ACE 与物质使用之间的关系来扩展现有研究。

参与者和设置

该研究包括来自青少年犯罪纵向研究的790 名青少年犯罪者（669 名男性，M_年龄= 17.59 岁）。

方法

进行多元回归以检查自我报告的 ACE 与物质使用之间的关系。进行了潜在类别分析以确定物质使用开始的类别。然后使用多元回归测试这些类别与累积 ACE 和 ACE 频率之间的关系。

结果

饮酒 (B = 0.66, p = .002) 和非法药物 (B = 0.38, p = .02) 的青少年罪犯比不饮酒的青少年有更多累积和更频繁的 ACE。此外，我们发现 ACE 与物质使用频率之间存在正相关关系。那些在儿童时期开始服用药物的人比那些后来开始服用药物的人有更多的 ACE，并且有更严重的药物依赖问题 ( t = 5.93, p < .0001)。此外，ACE 与药物使用依赖性之间存在正相关关系（B = 0.11，p = .03）。

结论

我们的研究结果强调了 ACE 作为物质使用风险因素的重要性。这强调了在康复环境中对 ACE 和物质使用进行全面筛查和治疗的必要性。