Strain on the street: the retreat from drug use to suicide among homeless youth.

Delinquency research defines retreatists as “double-failures” who often withdraw from society and indulge in habitual drug use. Based on a combination of the retreatist literature and general strain theory, we develop a model that includes measures of strain and substance use. Using logistic regression, we test this model on a sample of 425 homeless adolescents. We find that strain such as sexual victimization while living on the street increases the likelihood of attempted suicide. Additionally, we discover that the likelihood of an attempted suicide differs significantly the type and amount of drugs these youth consume.

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