Physical fighting among school-going Portuguese adolescents: Social and behavioural correlates

Physical Fighting and Social Correlates among In-School Adolescents in the Caribbean

“…This figure compares with the prevalence of physical fighting in countries of the Eastern Mediterranean and sub-Saharan Africa, but is higher than in countries in South America, Asia and USA and Portugal (Fraga et al, 2011;Swahn et al, 2013). The study found some country variation in physical fighting prevalence, with Jamaica and Antigua and Barbuda having the highest and Dominica and St Lucia the lowest figures.…”

“…The clustering of other risk behaviours such as smoking, alcohol use, early sexual debut, truancy and bullying victimization suggest that public health interventions aiming at the prevention of interpersonal violence in adolescents should factor in these other problem behaviours (Fraga et al, 2011).…”

“…The prevalence of any physical fighting in the past 12 months as found across 28 countries, among school-going adolescents was in the Eastern Mediterranean from 41.1% in Oman to 57.7% in Djibouti, in Asia from 15.9% in Myanmar to 50.0% in the Philippines, in sub-Saharan Africa from 28% in Swaziland to 53.5% in Ghana and in South America from 31.3% in Argentina to 40.7% in Chile (Swahn, Gressard, Palmier, Yao & Haberlen, 2013;, 31.4% in the USA (Swahn et al, 2013), and 33.8% in Portugal (Fraga, Ramos, Dias & Barros, 2011).…”

“…Factors associated with physical fighting among adolescents have been identified as follows: 1) Socioeconomic factors [male gender (Pickett et al, 2013;Rudatsikira, Siziya, Kazembe & Muula, 2007;Shetgiri, Kataoka, Ponce, Flores & Chung, 2010); older age (Pickett et al, 2013); low economic status (Bailey, 2011;Pickett et al, 2013;Shetgiri et al, 2010]; 2) Risk behaviours (Pickett et al, 2013), substance use (alcohol use, smoking, drug use) (Fraga, Ramos, Dias & Barros, 2011;Reid, Garcia-Reid, Klein & McDougall, 2008;Rudatsikira et al, , 2010Shetgiri et al, 2010), bullying victimization (Celedonia, Wilson, El Gammal & Hagras, 2013;Pickett et al, 2013;Rudatsikira et al, 2007;Rudatsikira, Mataya, Siziya & Muula, 2008), early sexual debut (Fraga et al, 2011 ;Ohene, Ireland & Blum, 2005), drank more than five cans of soft drinks per week (Solnick & Hemenway, 2012); 3) Psychological distress [depressive symptoms (Celedonia et al, 2013;Shetgiri et al, 2010); feeling irritable or bad tempered (Smith-Khuri et al, 2004)]; 4) Lack of protective factors [lack of parental supervision (Rudatsikira et al, 2007, lack of helpful peers (Celedonia et al, 2013); lack of understanding parents (Celedonia et al, 2013), lack of family support (Shetgiri et al, 2010;Williams, Rivera, Neighbours & Reznik, 2007); lack of school support (Shetgiri et al, 2010;Williams et al, 2007).…”

La asociación entre la exposición a la violencia, alcohol y drogas en el perfil psicosocial de adolescentes México-Americanos de bajos recursos

“…Evidence suggests that engagement in heavy drinking during adolescence has profound consequences for brain development, mainly associated with neurocognitive dysfunction (Colby et al, 2012;Elofson, Gongvatana, & Carey, 2013;Squeglia, Schweinsburg, Pulido, & Tapert, 2011). A variety of other adverse health outcomes are also related to drinking during adolescence, including engagement in high risk behaviors such as drunk driving (Dhami, Mandel, & Garcia-Retamero, 2011;Kuntsche & Muller, 2012), substance-abuse (Ahlm, Saveman, & Bjornstig, 2013;Hensing, 2012;Huang, Lin, Lee, & Guo, 2013), physical fighting (Fraga, Ramos, Dias, & Barros, 2011;Rudatsikira, Siziya, Kazembe, & Muula, 2007), and/or unsafe sexual behaviors (Hipwell, Stepp, Chung, Durand, & Keenan, 2012;Imaledo, Peter-Kio, & Asuquo, 2012;Jackson, Sweeting, & Haw, 2012). Alcohol exposure at an early age also makes adolescents vulnerable to interpersonal violence, both as victims and perpetrators, suggesting it plays a role in recurring cycles of violence (Cui, Ueno, Gordon, & Fincham, 2013;Haynie et al, 2013;Reed et al, 2013;Thornberry & Henry, 2013; P. W. Wang et al, 2013).…”