Self-medication and Violent Behavior (Criminal Justice: Recent Scholarship)

Ostrowsky identifies the causes and consequences of alcohol and marijuana use among adolescents. Edward Khantzian's self-medication hypothesis provides the theoretical framework. However, using longitudinal data from the Rochester Youth Development Study, Ostrowsky extends Khantzian's perspective. The results provide little support to the five predictions of the self-medication hypothesis, but interesting findings emerge. In terms of drug use, weak school commitment predicts an increase in alcohol use and weak parental attachment predicts an increase in marijuana use among early and late adolescent girls. In terms of violence, high self-esteem was found to increase violent behavior among late adolescent girls, contrary to expectation.