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Adolescence Trajectories

Decent Essays

The article we chose to focus on is title, “Developmental Progression to Early Adult Binge Drinking and Marijuana use from Worsening Versus Stable Trajectories of Adolescent Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Delinquency.” This “article aims to “examine the association between development trajectories of inattention, hyperactivity-impulsivity and delinquency through childhood and adolescence (ages 8-16 years) and subsequent binge drinking and marijuana use in early adulthood (age 21 years).” ADHD, also known as, Childhood attention-deficit and hyperactivity disorder is a chronic condition that includes attention difficulty, hyperactivity, and impulsiveness. This disorder is “associated with increased risk for later substance …show more content…

They “tested whether children followed distinct trajectories of ADHD symptoms and delinquency, prior to the randomization and ending in adolescence.” The main goal of this study was to “identify trajectories of change associated with the highest levels of early adult binge drinking and marijuana use, controlling for childhood risk and protective factors associated with symptom trajectories. They anticipated three trajectories of ADHD symptoms reaching into adolescence, children whose symptoms diminished and remained at low levels.” The children whose symptoms declined slowly; and children whose symptoms recovered after reaching low levels during the treatment stage. “There were no significant differences in baseline characteristics between participants and non-participants at the 36-month assessment.” The symptoms of the child with ADHD were measured with the combinations of parent and teacher ratings from the Swanson, Nolan, and Pelham Rating Scale. “Scores were first rescaled by standardizing these baseline scores and centering parents’ and teachers’ scores at subsequent assessments on their respective raw baseline means and standard deviations.” After the scores were given, they were assigned a “delinquency classification based on parent- and self-report measures of delinquency and antisocial behavior at baseline, 14, 24, and 36 months and then at

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