This study had several limitations. The sample was comprised of at-risk, Black and White males from one city; thus, we cannot generalize the findings to females, other race/ethnicities, or youth living in different environments. Moreover, while we used official records as well as self and parent reports of violent behavior and a well validated scale of depression, we relied only on self reports for heavy drinking. However, reliability and validity of self-reported substance use has been established in many studies (e.g., [35]). Also, we included only substantiated cases of maltreatment, which could under-estimate the extent of maltreatment and may be racially biased [36] (see note 3).
