Adolescent Violent Delinquency Associated With Increased Emergency Department Usage in Young Adulthood

Citation

Portnoy, J. & Schwartz, J. A. (2021). Adolescent Violent Delinquency Associated With Increased Emergency Department Usage in Young Adulthood. Int J Offender Ther Comp Criminol.

Abstract

Limited research has examined the extent to which adolescent delinquency predicts healthcare usage in young adulthood, including emergency department (ED) visits. This study used data from 3,310 adolescents (52.05% female; mean age at Wave I = 16.04 years) from the sibling subsample of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health). We examined whether adolescent delinquency at Wave I predicted ED visits at Wave III using sibling fixed effects models to adjust estimates for within-family unobserved heterogeneity. Increased violent, but not nonviolent, delinquency predicted a higher number of ED visits in early adulthood in the sibling fixed effects models. To our knowledge, this is the first study to examine the relationship between delinquency and ED usage using a sibling fixed effects design. Findings demonstrate that violent adolescent delinquency may increase healthcare usage and suggest the potential role of healthcare providers in improving outcomes for delinquent youth.

URL

https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624x211066835

Keyword(s)

adolescence

Notes

1552-6933

Reference Type

Journal Article

Journal Title

Int J Offender Ther Comp Criminol

Author(s)

Portnoy, J.
Schwartz, J. A.

Year Published

2021

Edition

2021/12/30

DOI

10.1177/0306624x211066835

Reference ID

9520