Publications by authors named "Karen Abram"

Prevention science has increasingly turned to integrative data analysis (IDA) to combine individual participant-level data from multiple studies of the same topic, allowing us to evaluate overall effect size, test and model heterogeneity, and examine mediation. Studies included in IDA often use different measures for the same construct, leading to sparse datasets. We introduce a graph theory method for summarizing patterns of sparseness and use simulations to explore the impact of different patterns on measurement bias within three different measurement models: a single common factor, a hierarchical model, and a bifactor model.

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Purpose: Investigate if the type of substance use disorder (SUD) in adolescence predicts SUDs in adulthood and examine sex and racial/ethnic differences in the persistence of SUDs.

Methods: Data are from the Northwestern Juvenile Project, a 15-year longitudinal study of 1829 youth randomly sampled from detention in Chicago, IL (1995-1998). Interviewers assessed SUDs using structured diagnostic interviews.

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Purpose: To examine the association between substance use disorders (SUDs) and HIV/AIDS risk behaviors in detained youth as they age.

Methods: Prospective longitudinal study of a stratified random sample of 1,829 youth aged 10 to 18 years at baseline, sampled between November 1995 and June 1998 from the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center, Chicago, Illinois, and reinterviewed up to 13 times (to median age 32); 17,766 interviews overall.

Results: Youth had greater odds of engaging in every risk behavior when they had an SUD compared with when they did not have an SUD.

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Objective: To examine: (1) if youth who have mental health disorders receive needed services after they leave detention-and as they age; and (2) inequities in service use, focusing on demographic characteristics and type of disorder.

Method: We used data from the Northwestern Juvenile Project, a longitudinal study of 1,829 youth randomly sampled from detention in Chicago, Illinois in 1995. Participants were re-interviewed up to 13 times through 2015.

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Importance: Youths, especially Black and Hispanic males, are disproportionately affected by firearm violence. Yet, no epidemiologic studies have examined the incidence rates of nonfatal firearm injury and firearm mortality in those who may be at greatest risk-youths who have been involved with the juvenile justice system.

Objectives: To examine nonfatal firearm injury and firearm mortality in youths involved with the juvenile justice system and to compare incidence rates of firearm mortality with the general population.

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Importance: Previous studies have found that one-half to three-quarters of youths detained in juvenile justice facilities have 1 or more psychiatric disorders. Little is known about the course of their disorders as they age.

Objective: To examine the prevalence, comorbidity, and continuity of 13 psychiatric disorders among youths detained in a juvenile justice facility during the 15 years after detention up to a median age of 31 years, with a focus on sex and racial/ethnic differences.

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Importance: Preventing firearm violence requires understanding its antecedents. Yet no comprehensive longitudinal study has examined how involvement with firearms during adolescence-use, access, and victimization (defined as threatened with a weapon or gunshot injury)-is associated with the perpetration of firearm violence in adulthood.

Objective: To examine the association between firearm involvement during adolescence and subsequent firearm perpetration and ownership in adulthood among youth involved in the juvenile justice system.

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Between January 2016 and June 2020, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration rapidly distributed $7.5 billion in response to the U.S.

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Background: The US 21st Century Cures Act provided $7.5 billion in grant funding to states and territories for evidence-based responses to the opioid epidemic. Currently, little is known about optimal strategies for sustaining these programs beyond this start-up funding.

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Supportive social networks are key to the successful transition to young adulthood. Yet, we know little about networks of delinquent youth, a population at risk for disrupted social connections. This study describes the structure and function of social support networks among delinquent youth eight years after detention; median age 24 years.

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Objective: To identify trajectories of substance use disorders (SUDs) in youth during the 12 years after detention and how gender, race/ethnicity, and age at baseline predict trajectories.

Method: As part of the Northwestern Juvenile Project, a longitudinal study of 1,829 youth randomly sampled from detention in Chicago, Illinois from 1995 through 1998, participants were reinterviewed in the community or correctional facilities up to 9 times over 12 years. Independent interviewers assessed SUDs using the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children 2.

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Objectives: To examine changes in the prevalence of 15 HIV/AIDS sex and drug risk behaviors in delinquent youth during the 14 years after they leave detention, focusing on sex and racial/ethnic differences.

Methods: The Northwestern Juvenile Project, a prospective longitudinal study of 1829 youth randomly sampled from detention in Chicago, Illinois, recruited between 1995 and 1998 and reinterviewed up to 11 times. Independent interviewers assessed HIV/AIDS risk behaviors using the National Institutes on Drug Abuse Risk Behavior Assessment.

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Importance: Longitudinal studies of delinquent youth have focused on criminal recidivism, not on psychosocial outcomes in adulthood. This omission is critical because after detention most youth return to the community, where they become the responsibility of pediatric health care professionals.

Objective: To investigate 8 positive outcomes among delinquent youth 5 and 12 years after detention, focusing on sex and racial/ethnic differences.

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Objectives: To examine sex and racial/ethnic differences in the prevalence of 9 substance-use disorders (SUDs)--alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, hallucinogen or PCP, opiate, amphetamine, inhalant, sedative, and unspecified drug--in youths during the 12 years after detention.

Methods: We used data from the Northwestern Juvenile Project, a prospective longitudinal study of 1829 youths randomly sampled from detention in Chicago, Illinois, starting in 1995 and reinterviewed up to 9 times in the community or correctional facilities through 2011. Independent interviewers assessed SUDs with Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children 2.

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This study investigated the prevalence of loss due to death and its association with mental disorders in a random sample of 898 newly detained adolescents in Chicago, Illinois. Nearly 90% of youth experienced the loss of an important person; most had also experienced a "high-risk" loss (e.g.

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This paper presents data on the mental health needs of men in an Italian prison and examines if mental health needs of inmates differ across key correctional subpopulations. Interviewers conducted semi-structured clinical interviews with 526 convicted males incarcerated in the Spoleto Prison from October 2010 through September 2011. Nearly two thirds (65.

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Objective: To examine the relationship between psychiatric disorders and violence in delinquent youth after detention.

Method: The Northwestern Juvenile Project is a longitudinal study of youth from the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center (Chicago, Illinois). Violence and psychiatric disorders were assessed via self-report in 1,659 youth (56% African American, 28% Hispanic, 36% female, aged 13-25 years) interviewed up to 4 times between 3 and 5 years after detention.

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The authors investigated HIV knowledge change among a cohort of juvenile detainees. Participants completed an HIV knowledge survey at baseline and up to 4 more times over 6 years. The authors calculated knowledge scores; the time serial trend of scores was modeled using generalized estimating equations.

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Importance: Psychiatric disorders and comorbidity are prevalent among incarcerated juveniles. To date, no large-scale study has examined the comorbidity and continuity of psychiatric disorders after youth leave detention.

Objective: To determine the comorbidity and continuity of psychiatric disorders among youth 5 years after detention.

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Cognitive functioning affects health. This study assessed cognitive functioning among participants in the Northwestern Juvenile Project, a stratified random sample of 1,829 newly detained juveniles (10 to 18 years old) from Cook County, Illinois. The study examined receptive vocabulary, oral reading, arithmetic computation skills, and general intellectual abilities.

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Context: Psychiatric disorders are prevalent among incarcerated juveniles. Most juveniles eventually return to their communities, where they become the responsibility of the community mental health system. However, no large-scale study has examined psychiatric disorders after youth leave detention.

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