Biomedical subjects

Nicola Swain-Campbell

Publications and source records attributed to Nicola Swain-Campbell.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2004

How does childhood economic disadvantage lead to crime?

BACKGROUND: This study sought to examine the associations between indices of socio-economic deprivation in childhood and later involvement in crime. METHOD: Data were gathered as part of the Christchurch Health and Development Study. In this project a cohort of 1,265 children born in Christchurch in 1977 have been studied from birth to age 21 years. The measures collected included: self-reported property and violent crime (15-16, 17-18, and 20-21 years); officially recorded convictions for property/violent crime; measures of childhood socio-economic status; and a series of intervening factors, including parenting (use of physical punishment, maternal care, family change, parental attachment, parental offending), individual (conduct and attention problems), school (truancy, suspensions, examination performance, scholastic ability), and peer factors (affiliations with deviant and substance using peers). RESULTS: The results suggest that childhood socio-economic disadvantage was associated with clear increases in rates of both self-reported crime and officially recorded convictions. However, using block recursive negative binomial regression models a range of parental, individual, school, and peer factors were found to intervene between socio-economic disadvantage and crime. Following introduction of these measures into the models, the association between socio-economic disadvantage and crime became both statistically and practically non-significant. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that the higher rates of crime found amongst young people from socio-economically disadvantaged families reflect a life course process in which adverse family, individual, school, and peer factors combine to increase individual susceptibility to crime.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2003

Deviant peer affiliations and depression: confounding or causation?

Data gathered from 2 longitudinal studies (the Christchurch Health and Development study of a birth cohort of 1,265 New Zealand participants studied to 21 years and the Quebec Study of 240 Canadian participants studied to 13 years) was used to examine the linkages between deviant peer affiliations and depression in adolescence. Both studies produced similar conclusions: a) increasing peer affiliations were associated with significant (p < .0001) increases in depressive symptoms; b) the associations between peer affiliations and depression could not be fully explained by confounding factors; and c) peer affiliations and depressive symptoms were linked by a causal chain process in which deviant peer affiliations led to increased externalizing behaviors with the negative consequences of these behaviors leading to depression.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2003

Risky driving behaviour in young people: prevalence, personal characteristics and traffic accidents.

OBJECTIVES: This research aimed to examine the prevalence of risky driving behaviour among young people, the characteristics of those who engage in risky driving behaviour, and the association between risky driving behaviours and accident risk. METHODS: Data were gathered during the course of the Christchurch Health and Development Study. As part of this longitudinal study, data were gathered on self-reported risky driving behaviours (18-21 years), traffic accidents (18-21 years) and a variety of individual characteristics for 907 participants who reported having driven a motor vehicle. RESULTS: More than 90% of drivers engaged in some form of risky driving behaviour. Those most likely to engage in frequent risky driving behaviours were: males (p < 0.0001), who exhibited alcohol (p < 0.0001) or cannabis abuse (p < 0.001) in adolescence, who were involved in violent/property crime (p < 0.01) and who affiliated with delinquent or substance-using peers (p < 0.05). There was a strong (p < 0.0001) association between the extent of risky driving behaviour and traffic accident risk. CONCLUSIONS: Risky driving behaviours are common among young people, particularly among young males prone to externalizing behaviours (substance abuse, crime and affiliations with deviant peers). Risky driving is strongly linked to traffic accident risk. IMPLICATIONS: There is a continued need to target risky driving behaviours among young people. Efforts to reduce risky driving should be targeted in particular at the high-risk group of young males prone to externalizing behaviours. More generally, the results suggest the need for a multistrategy approach to the reduction of traffic accidents that focuses on the full spectrum of risky driving behaviours.

Accidents, Traffic↗

PubMed2002

Cannabis use and psychosocial adjustment in adolescence and young adulthood.

AIM: To examine the associations between frequency of cannabis use and psychosocial outcomes in adolescence/young adulthood. DESIGN: A 21-year longitudinal study of the health, development and adjustment of a birth cohort of 1265 New Zealand children. MEASUREMENTS: Annual assessments of the frequency of cannabis use were obtained for the period from age 14-21 years, together with measures of psychosocial outcomes including property/violent crime, depression, suicidal ideation, suicide attempt and other illicit drug use. FINDINGS: The frequency of cannabis use was associated significantly with all outcomes, and particularly other illicit drug use. Statistical control for confounding by both fixed and time-dynamic factors substantially reduced the strength of association between cannabis use and outcome measures. Nevertheless, cannabis use remained significantly (P < 0.05) associated with all outcomes and particularly other illicit drug use, after adjustment for confounding. For the measures of crime, suicidal behaviours and other illicit drug use there was evidence of age related variation in the strength of association with cannabis use, with younger (14-15 years old) users being more affected by regular cannabis use than older (20-21 years old) regular users. However, the association between cannabis use and depression did not vary with age. CONCLUSIONS: Cannabis use, and particularly regular or heavy use, was associated with increased rates of a range of adjustment problems in adolescence/ young adulthood-other illicit drug use, crime, depression and suicidal behaviours-with these adverse effects being most evident for school-aged regular users. The findings reinforce public health concerns about minimizing the use of cannabis among school-aged populations.

Adolescent↗