Study objective-Children's proxy reports on indicators of their parents' socioeconomic status (SES) have either been used uncritically or dismissed as invalid. This paper examines the validity of young adolescents' reports of parental SES by comparing adolescent reports with parents' own reports of SES. Design, setting and participants-In 1990, 924 13 year olds, along with 648 of their fathers and 735 of their mothers, participated in the baseline survey of The Norwegian Longitudinal Health Behaviour Study. Data on parental occupation were collected from both adolescents and parents at baseline, while data on parental education were collected at follow up from the adolescents at age 15 and from their parents when the adolescents were 19 years old. Main results-Three diVerent ways of grouping the SES categories based on occupational data were investigated, and the strength of agreement was good for all three groups, with statistics ranging from 0.65 to 0.86. There were no significant improvements of agreement when comparing adolescent data from age 15 to adolescent data from age 13. The strength of agreements between the adolescents' and parents' reports of parental education were fair; statistics were 0.30 and 0.38 for fathers' and mothers' education, respectively. The proportions of unclassified answers or no responses from the adolescents were similar for questions on occupation and education, and ranged from 11% to 16%. Conclusions-The agreement between adolescents' and parents' reports of SES based on occupation was judged to be good, but adding a few specific questions may cue the adolescent to provide more detailed information, thereby reducing the numbers of unclassified answers or non-responders. (J Epidemiol Community Health 2001;55:731-737) Over the past two decades there has been a marked increase in research on the relation between socioeconomic status (SES) and health, and the focus has shifted from investigating the relation between health outcomes and SES to investigating the mechanisms behind such relations.

Future investigations of the presence of a social gradient in adolescent health behaviour should focus on composite measures of health behaviour. Further research is needed on potential mediating mechanisms behind the SES-health behaviour relationships in youth.

The associations observed between early life trauma and later health risk behaviour indicate the need for early prevention. The findings also emphasize the important role of prison health services in secondary prevention among women inmates.

Homicide-suicide incidents make up a relatively small proportion of homicides overall, but occur more frequently in certain subtypes of homicide, such as men who kill their female partners. This study investigates aspects of intimate partner homicide-suicide (IPHS) by comparing it with intimate partner homicide (IPH). All IPHs in Norway from 1990 to 2012 ( N = 177) were included. Quantitative data were extracted from court documents. Qualitative data were collected by interviews with bereaved. Multivariate logistic regression analyses and systematic text condensation were conducted. Nearly one fourth of IPHs were identified as IPHS. Perpetrators of IPHS were less likely to have a previous criminal record, even having a history of disregard and violations of the law. Perpetrators of IPHS were mainly native-born citizens and were more educated than IPH perpetrators. The motive of IPHS was more often jealousy than a dispute, but the motive was most often recorded as “other” or “unknown.” IPHS was perceived as intentional, and the bereaved did not unambiguously support the interpretation that the IPHS had been triggered by stressful situations. The bereaved pointed to the loss of hope or loss of a future combined with an inability to cope with severe disappointments as an important risk factor. Within the framework of an interactional perspective, our findings indicate that IPHS shares more characteristics with IPH than it does with other categories of homicide and other violent deaths in general.

To explore possible risk factors for intimate partner homicide by combining structured risk assessment based on information available in court documents and individual risk assessment provided through interviews with the bereaved. Method: The aim of this study was to scrutinize intimate partner homicide (IPH) situations and interactions within a retrospective, mixed methods design. All IPHs in Norway that had received a final legal judgment from 1990 to 2012 (N ϭ 177) were included. Quantitative data was extracted through structured investigation of the court documents. Risk factors were identified from three validated risk assessment instruments. Qualitative data were retrieved from interviews with a sample of bereaved (n ϭ 12). Results: The IPH distribution was biased toward low socioeconomic status. Previous intimate partner violence (IPV) was identified in 7 out of 10 IPH incidents. Observed risk by the bereaved was infrequently communicated to health care, police, or support services. Individuals who did communicate risk found that professionals underestimated the reported risk and did not act on their warnings. Conclusions: The majority of IPHs did not occur without warning signs. To prevent IPH, structured risk assessments and knowledge of family and friends' perceptions of risk is essential.

Subjective social status may add important information to our understanding of the relationship between social disadvantage and mental health in a marginalized social group such as prison inmates.

Prisons all over the western world are known to be inhabited by a biased sample of the population. More information is needed on how problems in diverse areas interact. The present study investigated how general welfare deficiencies, drug use and mental health problems were related in a representative prison population. Data stem from a level-of-living survey among a nationwide representative sample of Norwegian prison inmates. The sample was drawn randomly from the official register of prison inmates. Data were collected through structured personal interviews (computer assisted). Analyses presented in this paper are based on the male part of the sample (n=225). Only 24% of male prisoners were affected by neither drug use problems nor mental health problems. Investigating the relationship between variables indicated an increasing accumulation of childhood stressors and general welfare deficiencies with increasing drug use and mental health problems. As health problems are intertwined with more general social problems, health promotion among prison inmates is clearly a multidisciplinary task, requiring close collaboration between different service providers and systems of care.

Only one third of those who report suicidal ideation and behavior receive psychological or emotional counseling. Although not all of these young people may identify a need for counseling, this finding still suggests that many of those at risk of harming themselves do not receive professional help. However, on the positive side, those who do use counseling services tend to do so on the basis of their being in the greatest need, rather than their parents' capacity to pay for services. Counseling services have an important role to play in suicide prevention, and a variety of sources of care need to be available. Although counseling services are vital, a range of other strategies is necessary to reduce the youth suicide rate.