The Association Between Types of Violence Exposure and Youths' Mental Health Problems

Abstract

Highly structured interviews were conducted with 792 adolescents, ages 14 to 18, from St. Louis, Missouri, who received services from gateway sectors (child welfare, education, juvenile justice, and primary health care). These youths were exposed to high rates of violence in their families, neighborhoods, and schools, all of which were associated with suicidality and symptoms of major mental health disorders (i.e., depression, conduct disorder, substance abuse or dependence, and post-traumatic stress). Multivariate analyses demonstrated that personal victimization was associated with each of the assessed mental health problems. Further, intrafamilial violence was a significant predictor of all problems except for suicidality. Witnessing a violent act was associated with all the externalizing problems, as well as with depression and posttraumatic stress symptoms. Participation in structured activities moderated the relationships between intrafamilial violence and each of the externalizing problems.

Psychiatric Symptom Typology in a Sample of Youth Receiving Substance Abuse Treatment Services: Associations with Self-Reported Child Maltreatment and Sexual Risk Behaviors

“…Tubman et al [25] studied a community sample of young adults (N = 1,803) aged 18-23 years who were followed up from an earlier school-based study of risk and protective factors for substance use among early adolescents. Consistent with previous research with clinical and community samples [13,26], Tubman et al [25] found associations between lifetime histories of abuse experiences and young adults' self-reported engagement in sexual risk behavior. However, while child sexual abuse (CSA) has been found to be associated with increased risk for sexual risk behavior participation across gender and all age strata, relations between other types of maltreatment and sexual risk behavior are not consistent [27,28].…”

Traumatic Experiences and Drug Use by LGB Adolescents: A Critical Review of Minority Stress

“…Wright and Perry (2006) found that running away from home was a predictor of drug use in their sample of LGB adolescents, and Whitbeck et al (2004) found that engagement in subsistence strategies predicted higher drug use by LGB homeless youth. In a related study, Elze et al (1999) found that living at home was associated with lower drug use by LGB adolescents.…”

“…Espelage, Aragon, Birkett, and Koenig (2008) found that parent support moderated the relationship between homophobic teasing and marijuana use among a large school-based sample of LGB teens. Elze, Stiffman, and Dore (1999), Ryan, Russell, Huebner, Diaz, and Sanchez (2010), and Willoughby et al (2010) found that family rejection was directly related to higher drug use. Similarly, Ryan and colleagues (2009) found that LGB youth who experienced high rates of family rejection during adolescence were 3.4 times as likely to use illicit substances compared to those who experienced no to low levels of family rejection.…”

“…Three reports indicated a positive relationship between homelessness (Elze et al, 1999;Whitbeck, Chen, Hoyt, Tyler, & Johnson, 2004) or running away from home (Wright & Perry, 2006) and drug use for LGB adolescents. Wright and Perry (2006) found that running away from home was a predictor of drug use in their sample of LGB adolescents, and Whitbeck et al (2004) found that engagement in subsistence strategies predicted higher drug use by LGB homeless youth.…”

An Investigation of the Relationships between Violence Exposure, Internalizing and Externalizing Problems, and Adolescent Alcohol Use

“…Some of these studies did not differentiate among social contexts (e.g., Kilpatrick et al, 2003;Schwab-Stone et al, 1995), whereas most focused on violence exposure in one setting. With rare exceptions (Elze, Stiffman, & Dore, 1999;Ennett et al, 1997;Mrug, Loosier, & Windle, 2008) studies have not differentiated between or examined two settings (school and neighborhood).…”