| Abstract: | Although the literature supports a positive association between substance use and violence, scattered reports suggest a basis for predicting an inverse relationship. Using panel data (N = 2, 222) from subjects tested during early adolescence and three years later, we estimate structural equation models that specify within‐wave relationships between substance use and violence constructs, stability of these constructs over time, and lagged effects of each construct on the other. As hypothesized, net of the within‐wave positive relationships, substance use was inversely related to later violence. The findings support theoretical orientations that accommodate motivation to use substances to assuage distressful self‐feelings (including those that instigate violence). |
