Poster #132 - Intergenerational Effects of Criminality on Subsequent Substance use Disorder

• In Event: ASC Poster Session I

Abstract

Despite a large body of research involving people in the criminal legal system (CLS), few studies examine how a parent’s CLS involvement may predict a child’s subsequent substance use disorder (SUD). Given the number of people with SUDs involved in the CLS and their high recidivism rate, it would be useful to ascertain how intergenerational contact with the CLS contributes to SUD. Secondary data analysis from the Survey of Prison Inmates (2016) was used to examine the mediating effect of drug experimentation on the relationship between parental criminality and adult child SUD (n=13,498). Logistic regression results demonstrate that parent criminality increases the odds of SUD by 33% compared to having a parent with no CLS history. The mediation model demonstrated that only 28% of this effect was mediated by the adult child’s drug experimentation, showing that 72% of the total effect of parent CLS involvement was a direct predictor of subsequent SUD in the adult child controlling for sex, race, socioeconomic status, education, and childhood home placement. Research in this area could demonstrate the need for intervention, not only in the parent with CLS involvement, but for their child to reduce the onset of SUD and future CLS involvement.

Author

• Rebecca deLacerda Allen, University of Kentucky