Violent Victimization, Stressful Events, and Depression: A Longitudinal Study of Young Adults in the U.S.

Lo, Celia C.; Gerling, Heather M.; Ash-Houchen, William; Cheng, Tyrone C.

doi:10.1007/s10597-020-00673-w

Cited by 2 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…Our findings suggest that direct victimization in childhood is a critical predictor of later heavy drinking behavior for only female adolescents and young adults, and the same risk-generating effect was not found for our measure of vicarious or indirect victimization as expected for either gender group. Previous research outlines the role of victimization, among a tapestry of other adverse childhood experiences in generating conditions conducive to heavy drinking behavior [48,[71][72][73][74] often through a pathway leading from the traumatic experience to lasting or lagged psychological distress [27,41,49,51,75]. Our findings are strongly suggestive of childhood as a major life stage in which direct victimization has powerful and lasting results for women and girls, acting on the risk of heavy drinking, even controlling for adolescent victimization and more recent stressful events.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 53%

“…For each independent variable except age and survey year, we observed statistically significant male-female differences. 1.0 (0.9) 0.9 (0.9) 1.0 (0.9) <0.01 Age (19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31)(32)(33)(34)(35)(36) 25.9 (4.0) 25.9 (4.1) Table 2 reflects our GEE model explaining heavy drinking likelihood for the full sample. Model 1 generated statistically significant associations between heavy drinking and seeing a shooting at 12-18 years of age.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The effects of victimization, however, do not exist solely for those who are direct victims, such as in the case of a bullied child or adolescent. Instead, vicarious victimization, such as witnessing another person being shot or otherwise indirectly encountering victimization as a bystander, has become an increasingly powerful predictor of future substance use and depression in need of further examination [24][25][26][27].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Gender and Childhood Victimization: A Longitudinal Study of Heavy Drinking in Young Adulthood

Ash-Houchen

Lo²,

Gerling

et al. 2021

IJERPH

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The present longitudinal study, for 12 years, followed a group of young adults, examining (1) whether/how victimization in childhood increased the likelihood of heavy drinking; (2) whether depression mediated the strain–heavy drinking relationship; and (3) whether/how relationships among strain, depression, and heavy drinking differed across two gender groups. Data came from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 cohort, dating 2004–2015 (5 interview waves and 22,549 person-wave measurements total). We linked consumption of 5+ drinks (during the month prior) to four discrete measures of violent victimization, to one measure of stressful events, and to depression. We needed to consider repeat measures of the same variables over time, so we used generalized estimating equations (GEE) to analyze data. Depression was found to increase heavy drinking uniformly. Empirical evidence confirmed that in the strain–heavy drinking relationship, depression plays a minor mediating role. Gender moderated heavy drinking’s associations. Specifically, bullying in childhood raised risk for female respondents. The current strain was associated with a higher risk of heavy drinking among male respondents. Childhood victimization, as well as current life stress, play an important role in depression and heavy drinking. Future research should focus on the development of specific, targeted care to reduce heavy drinking’s harm and promote equity among Americans.

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