Background Suicide is the second-leading cause of death among college students in the US and is preventable. Approximately 1,100 college students die by suicide each year. This study examined the prevalence and predictors of one-time and persistent suicide ideation, plans, and attempts reported during college. Methods Data were gathered prospectively over four years. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 1,253 first-year college students at one large mid-Atlantic university. Risk factors were measured in Year 1. Results An estimated 12%wt of individuals experienced suicide ideation at some point during college, and of those individuals, 25% had more than one episode of ideation (persistent ideation; 2.6%wt of the overall sample). Ten individuals had a plan or attempt during college (0.9%wt of the sample). Risk factors for persistent suicide ideation included low social support, childhood or adolescent exposure to domestic violence, maternal depression, and high self-reported depressive symptoms. Persistent ideators differed from one-time ideators only by higher levels of depression (p=.027). Persistent ideators were no more likely than one-time ideators to have made a suicide plan or attempt during college (8% vs. 9%, respectively). Limitations Although the sample size is large, only a small percentage of participants had persistent ideation, suicide plans or attempts during college. Conclusion These results have implications for programs aimed at identifying college students at risk for suicide. The accurate identification of college students at-risk for suicide is an important step toward suicide prevention.
Research on intimate partner violence (IPV) and victimization is widespread across disciplines. To date, the majority of research underscores the importance of individual-level factors to explain IPV, thereby neglecting the significance of macro-level elements. Nevertheless, research suggests that the characteristics of the neighborhood where an individual lives are important for fully understanding IPV. This review focuses on the effects of neighborhoods and macro-level context on violence between intimate partners, specifically identifying empirical studies that have examined contextual predictors of IPV utilizing the major tenets of social disorganization theory. The authors note consistencies and differences across research results and describe study features that may influence the patterns of these findings. Finally, the authors provide both theoretical and methodological recommendations for future research.
Background Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is the deliberate and direct injuring of body tissue without suicidal intent for purposes not socially sanctioned. Few studies have examined the correlates of NSSI among young adults. This paper aimed to identify predictors of lifetime and past-year NSSI; describe motives for NSSI and disclosure of NSSI to others. Method Interviews were conducted annually with 1,081 students enrolled in the College Life Study, a prospective longitudinal study conducted at one large public mid-Atlantic university. NSSI characteristics were assessed at Year 4. Demographic and predictor variables were assessed during Years 1 through 4. Multivariate logistic regression models were used to identify correlates of lifetime NSSI and predictors of past-year NSSI. Results The prevalence of past-year and lifetime NSSI were 2% and 7%, respectively(>70% were female for both lifetime and past-year NSSI). Seven percent of NSSI cases self-injured once, whereas almost half self-injured six or more times. Independent predictors of past-year NSSI were maternal depression, non-heterosexual orientation, affective dysregulation, and depression. Independent predictors of lifetime NSSI were depression, non-heterosexual orientation, paternal depression, and female sex. One in six participants with NSSI attempted suicide by young adulthood. The three most commonly reported motives for NSSI were mental distress, coping, and situational stressors. Two-thirds (89%) told someone about their NSSI, most commonly a friend (68%). Conclusions This study identified unique predictors of NSSI, which should help elucidate its etiology and has implications for early identification and interventions.
Objective This study uses longitudinal data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN) to examine the effects of exposure to school violence, community violence, child abuse, and parental intimate partner violence (IPV) on youths’ subsequent alcohol and marijuana use. We also examine the cumulative effects of being exposed to violence across these domains. Methods Longitudinal data were obtained from 1,655 adolescents and their primary caregivers participating in the PHDCN. The effects of adolescents’ exposure to various forms of violence across different life domains were examined relative to adolescents’ frequency of alcohol and marijuana use three years later. Multivariate statistical models were employed to control for a range of child, parent, and family risk factors. Results Exposure to violence in a one-year period increased the frequency of substance use three years later, though the specific relationships between victimization and use varied for alcohol and marijuana use. Community violence and child abuse, but not school violence or exposure to IPV, were predictive of future marijuana use. None of the independent measures of exposure to violence significantly predicted future alcohol use. Finally, the accumulation of exposure to violence across life domains was detrimental to both future alcohol and marijuana use. Conclusion The findings support prior research indicating that exposure to multiple forms of violence, across multiple domains of life, negatively impacts adolescent outcomes, including substance use. The findings also suggest that the context in which exposure to violence occurs should be considered in future research, since the more domains in which youth are exposed to violence, the fewer “safe havens” they have available. Finally, a better understanding of the types of violence youth encounter and the contexts in which these experiences occur can help inform intervention efforts aimed at reducing victimization and its negative consequences.
Research has demonstrated that exposure to violence can result in many negative consequences for youth, but the degree to which neighborhood conditions may foster resiliency among victims is not well understood. This study tests the hypothesis that neighborhood collective efficacy attenuates the relationship between adolescent exposure to violence, substance use, and violence. Data were collected from 1,661–1,718 adolescents participating in the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN), who were diverse in terms of sex (51% male, 49% female), race/ethnicity (48% Hispanic, 34% African American, 14% Caucasian, and 4% other race/ethnicity), and age (mean age 12 years; range: 8–16). Information on neighborhood collective efficacy was obtained from adult residents, and data from the 1990 U.S. Census were used to control for neighborhood disadvantage. Based on hierarchical modeling techniques to adjust for the clustered data, Bernoulli models indicated that more exposure to violence was associated with a greater likelihood of tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana use and perpetration of violence. Poisson models suggested that victimization was also related to a greater variety of substance use and violent behaviors. A moderating effect of collective efficacy was found in models assessing the variety of substance use; the relationship between victimization and substance use was weaker for youth in neighborhoods with higher versus lower levels of collective efficacy. These findings are consistent with literature indicating that social support can ameliorate the negative impact of victimization. This investigation extends this research to show that neighborhood social support can also help to promote resiliency among adolescents.
Marijuana is the most prevalent illicit drug used by adolescents and young adults, yet marijuana initiation is rarely studied past adolescence. The present study sought to advance our understanding of parent and peer influences on marijuana exposure opportunity and incident use during college. A sample of 1,253 students was assessed annually for four years starting with the summer prior to college entry. More than one-third (38%wt) of students had already used marijuana at least once prior to college entry; another 25%wt initiated use after starting college. Of the 360 students who did not use marijuana prior to college, 74% were offered marijuana during college; of these individuals, 54% initiated marijuana use. Both low levels of parental monitoring during the last year of high school and a high percentage of marijuana-using peers independently predicted marijuana exposure opportunity during college, holding constant demographics and other factors (AOR=0.92, 95% CI=0.88-0.96, p<.001 and AOR=1.11, 95% CI=1.08-1.14, p<.001, respectively). Among individuals with exposure opportunity, peer marijuana use (AOR=1.04, 95% CI=1.03-1.05, p<.001), but not parental monitoring, was associated with marijuana initiation. Results underscore that peer influences operate well into late adolescence and young adulthood and thus suggest the need for innovative peer-focused prevention strategies. Parental monitoring during high school appears to influence exposure opportunity in college; thus parents should be encouraged to sustain rule-setting and communication about adolescent activities and friend selection throughout high school.
Police in the United States (US) and the United Kingdom (UK) now routinely use risk assessment tools to identify common risk factors for re-abuse and lethality when responding to domestic abuse. Nevertheless, little is known about the extent to which officers understand and perceive the importance of factors commonly included on risk assessment tools for predicting future abuse. This study attempts to shed some light into this area of research by exploring the responses of 720 British and American police officers to questions regarding how important and how essential various risk factors are for evaluating the level of risk or harm a victim of domestic abuse may face in the future. Findings indicated that British and American officers were largely in agreement about a small constellation of risk factors that they considered integral to the risk assessment process: using or threatening to use a weapon; strangulation; physical assault resulting in injury and escalation of abuse. The results revealed that officers' country of employment, rather than their demographic characteristics or experience policing domestic abuse, was a particularly influential predictor of their perceptions, and that both the situational context and the victim's perception about risk are important in domestic abuse risk assessment.
Longitudinal studies are often considered to be a gold standard for research, but the operational management of such studies is not often discussed in detail; this paper describes strategies used to track and maintain high levels of participation in a longitudinal study involving annual personal interviews with a cohort of 1,253 undergraduates (first-time, first-year students at time of enrollment) at a large public mid-Atlantic university.
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