A Longitudinal Study of Truant Youths' Involvement in Sexual Risk Behavior

A Multigroup, Longitudinal Study of Truant Youths, Marijuana Use, Depression, and STD-Associated Sexual Risk Behavior

“…Much has been published about this particular sample of truant youth over the years. Germane to the present study of these youth, previous analyses have revealed differential effects of mental health problems (Dembo, Wareham, Schmeidler, Briones-Robinson, & Winters, 2014), substantial co-morbidity of problem behaviors among the youth (Dembo, Briones-Robinson, et al, 2012; Dembo, Wareham, Schmeidler, & Winters, in press), and trends in sexual risk behaviors over time for the total sample that are associated with trends in substance use over time (Dembo, Briones-Robinson, Barrett, et al, 2014; Dembo, Briones-Robinson, Ungaro et al, 2014; Dembo, Briones-Robinson, Wareham, et al, 2016). More recently, latent class analyses revealed gender differences in the association between sexual risk behaviors and depression symptoms (Dembo, Wareham, Krupa, & Winters, in press).…”

Sexual Risk Behavior among Male and Female Truant Youths: Exploratory, Multi-Group Latent Class Analysis

“…A previous LCA of the sexual risk items for all youth combined indicated a three-class solution was a better fit to the data, than a two-class solution (Dembo, Briones-Robinson, Wareham, Ungaro, Winters, & Karas, in press). However, the entropy value for this solution was 0.823.…”

School truancy and financial independence during emerging adulthood: a longitudinal analysis of receipt of and reliance on cash transfers

“…While this and other assertions of disadvantage within the truanting population (Tyerman, 1958;Zhang, 2003) are evidence based descriptions, they may be more useful as generalities than specific insights into this sizeable population. Indeed, three studies published in the last two decades have statistically discerned subgroups of truants, using different samples, analytic approaches, and identifying variables (Dembo, Robinson, Ungaro, Winters, & Karas, 2016;Maynard, Salas-Wright, et al, 2012;Onifade, Nyandoro, Davidson, & Campbell, 2009). Collectively, these three studies counter the perception that truants are a homogenous, disadvantaged, poorly performing group of young people.…”

“…(Maynard, Salas-Wright, et al, 2012). Of the other two studies, one estimated trajectory groups based on five observations of sexual risk behaviours over an 18 month period (Dembo et al, 2016), and the other used two variables to help to build the truant groups: criminal recidivism by a 2 year follow up (Onifade et al, 2009, p. 4). Envisioning this cohort from a life course perspective, however, a two year follow up suggests that there is much to learn about what subgroups might be discerned based on longitudinal patterns of life events, over a longer time period.…”

“…The first uses truants identified from a representative sample of students (Maynard, Salas-Wright, et al, 2012); one study samples truants referred to a truancy court (Onifade et al, 2009); and the last is a group of high risk truant youth, identified as those who were referred for their truancy to a diversion program (Dembo et al, 2016). The studies -distinct in their aims -identified three (Dembo et al, 2016), four (Maynard, Salas-Wright, et al, 2012) and five (Onifade et al, 2009) groups. In the latter two studies, the most risky group 20 was the smallest in size, while in Dembo et al (2016), the most risky was the largest group.…”