Codevelopment of Delinquency, Alcohol Use, and Aggression Toward Peers and Dates: Multitrajectory Patterns and Predictors

Abstract

We aimed to characterize developmental patterns of involvement in alcohol use, delinquency, and interpersonal aggression in a normative sample of adolescents by applying multitrajectory group-based modeling. Using seven waves of data from a cohort sequential study spanning the 6th to 12th grades (n = 2,825; 50% girls), we identified four distinct trajectory groups: low risk (33%), declining peer aggressors (44%), peer and dating aggressors (13%), and multidomain high risk (10%). Across all comparisons, girls were more likely than boys to be members of the peer and dating aggressor group and less likely to be members of the multidomain high-risk group. Moreover, individual (self-control, negative emotionality), family (family violence, parental monitoring), and peer (substance use norms) distinguished class membership.

Figure 1.

Hypothesized model of current study Note. Alc=heavy alcohol use, DV=physical dating violence, Del=delinquency, and PV=physical peer violence. Numbers correspond to the grade-level at time of measurement with “.5” indicating spring semester assessment. I=intercept, S=Slope, Q=Quadratic. T1=baseline assessment wave. As is standard for group-based trajectory models, latent variable (co)variances are fixed to zero and residual variances for the delinquency items were estimated but are not depicted.

Figure 2.

Problem Behavior Trajectories by Latent Multi-trajectory Class