Health Care Issues for Youth

This article examines the impact of childhood psychiatric disorders on the prevalence and timing of substance use and abuse and tests for sex differences. A representative sample of 1,420 children, ages 9, 11, and 13 at intake, were interviewed annually. By age 16 more than half the sample reported substance use and 6% had abuse or MORE

This article describes the service utilization patterns of homeless and runaway youth in a “service-rich” area, identifies demographic and other correlates of utilization, and contextualizes the findings with qualitative data. Survey data were collected from a sample of 296 youth aged 13-23 years, and qualitative data were collected from 46 youth. Drop-in centers and shelters were MORE

This article describes the personal social networks of runaway and homeless youth and examines network characteristic associated with substance abuse and unsafe sexual behavior. A purposive sample of youth aged 14 to 21 who were living in Washington, DC, and were identified on the streets or through shelters or other service agencies was interviewed in 1995 MORE

This article examines the prevalence and correlates of survival sex among runaway and homeless youths. A nationally representative sample of shelter youths and a multi-city sample of street youths were interviewed. Approximately 28% of street youths and 10% of shelter youths reported having participated in survival sex, which was associated with age, days away from home, MORE

In this article, three models of adolescent substance use, the deviance-prone, affect-regulation, and normative development models, are assessed regarding their ability to predict the substance use of a high-risk homeless adolescent sample with high rates of deviance, depression, and substance use. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses that included tests for curvilinear and gender interaction effects were performed. MORE

The article expands upon HIV studies revealing that adolescents, especially females, are becoming HIV infected at increasingly higher rates, and in some regions, at higher rates than adults. Delays in treatment and delivery of needed health care and services reduces the survival of adolescents living with HIV/AIDS. Following statistics on the epidemiology and seroprevalence surrounding adolescent MORE

This book is a compilation of secondary data for 54 health status indicators. It provides both graphical and textual summaries of data and addresses long-term trends where applicable. Providing the most current data available for public health professionals and others, data is presented for the target populations of Title V funding: infants, children, adolescents and women MORE

Homeless adolescents have remained an underserved population throughout the human immunodeficiency/acquired immune deficiency syndrome epidemic. This article reviews the recent literature investigating human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) risk behavior among street youth. Prevalence rates of both adolescent homelessness and HIV seropositivity are unknown. However, data from a number of samples document a high prevalence of HIV risk MORE

This article examines the relationships between substance use and risky sexual behavior in a sample of 327 homeless youth in Washington, DC. The aim was to characterize HIV-related risk behaviors of homeless youth, determine whether substance use is associated with risky sexual behavior in this population, and, if so, to explore explanations for this relationship. The MORE

This article examines the effects of the threat of formal punishment on the criminal behavior of homeless male street youths. The article focuses on how these threats are shaped by the living conditions of the youths and other factors in their lifestyles. The results reveal that while many street youths fear legal sanctions, more serious offenders MORE