Developmental Outcomes of Using Physical Violence Against Dates and Peers

The negative impact on adolescents of being a victim of violence is well documented, but the impact of being a perpetrator of violence is less well known. Knowing the negative outcomes of being a perpetrator could inform clinical interactions with adolescents, development of violence prevention strategies, and estimates of the societal burden of violence. This longitudinal study examined the effects of physical dating violence (DV) and peer violence (PV) perpetration on internalizing symptoms, relationships with friends and family, academic aspirations and grades, and substance use

Association Between Bullying Victimization and Health Risk Behaviors Among High School Students in the United States

BACKGROUND: Childhood exposure to adverse experiences has been associated with adult asthma, smoking, sexually transmitted disease, obesity, substance use, depression, and sleep disturbances. Conceptualizing bullying as an adverse childhood experience, 2011 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) data were used to examine the relationship between in-person and electronic bullying victimization among US high school students and health risk behaviors and conditions related to violence, substance use, sexual risk, overweight and physical activity, sleep, and asthma. METHODS: Data were from the 2011 national YRBS among students who answered questions about in-person and electronic bullying (N=13,846). The YRBS is a biennial, nationally representative survey of students in grades 9-12 (overall response rate=71%). Logistic regression analyses, stratified by sex and controlling for race/ethnicity and grade, examined the association between bullying victimization and health risk behaviors or conditions. RESULTS: Rates of victimization varied; 9.4% of students reported being bullied in-person and electronically, 10.8% only bullied in-person, 6.8% only electronically bullied, and 73.0% uninvolved. Bullying was associated with nearly all health risk behaviors and conditions studied. CONCLUSION: Assessing the broad functioning and behaviors of victims of bullying could enable educators and health practitioners to intervene early and promote the long-term health of youth

Suicide Risk and Protective Factors in Online Support Forum Posts: Annotation Scheme Development and Validation Study

BackgroundOnline communities provide support for individuals looking for help with suicidal ideation and crisis. As community data are increasingly used to devise machine learning models to infer who might be at risk, there have been limited efforts to identify both risk and protective factors in web-based posts. These annotations can enrich and augment computational assessment approaches to identify appropriate intervention points, which are useful to public health professionals and suicide prevention researchers. ObjectiveThis qualitative study aims to develop a valid and reliable annotation scheme for evaluating risk and protective factors for suicidal ideation in posts in suicide crisis forums. MethodsWe designed a valid, reliable, and clinically grounded process for identifying risk and protective markers in social media data. This scheme draws on prior work on construct validity and the social sciences of measurement. We then applied the scheme to annotate 200 posts from r/SuicideWatch—a Reddit community focused on suicide crisis. ResultsWe documented our results on producing an annotation scheme that is consistent with leading public health information coding schemes for suicide and advances attention to protective factors. Our study showed high internal validity, and we have presented results that indicate that our approach is consistent with findings from prior work. ConclusionsOur work formalizes a framework that incorporates construct validity into the development of annotation schemes for suicide risk on social media. This study furthers the understanding of risk and protective factors expressed in social media data. This may help public health programming to prevent suicide and computational social science research and investigations that rely on the quality of labels for downstream machine learning tasks

The Risk of A Child Neglect and Intellectual Disability of A Parent

Kontekst: Chociaż zaniedbywanie dzieci jest najczęściej zgłaszaną formą krzywdzenia, to jest stosunkowo słabo zbadane. Cel: Zebranie szacunkowych danych dotyczących podtypów zaniedbywania i różnic demograficznych w zakresie ekspozycji na poszczególne z nich, a także informacji o skutkach psychologicznych tego zjawiska. Osoby badane: Dane zbiorcze z dwóch reprezentatywnych prób z ogólnoamerykańskich badań ekspozycji dzieci na przemoc (National Surveys of Children’s Exposure to Violence, NatSCEV), przeprowadzonych w latach 2011 i 2014, dotyczących doświadczeń dzieci oraz nastolatków w wieku od miesiąca do 17 lat (N = 8503). Metody: Przeprowadzono ankiety telefoniczne, aby uzyskać dane socjodemograficzne, sześć miar doświadczeń zaniedbywania w roku poprzedzającym badanie i w ciągu całego życia oraz ocenę objawów traumy, myśli samobójczych, używania alkoholu i narkotyków. Wyniki: Ponad jedno na 17 amerykańskich dzieci (6,07%) doświadczyło jakiejś formy zaniedbywania w roku poprzedzającym badanie, a ponad jedno na siedmioro (15,4%) doświadczyło zaniedbywania w którymś momencie życia. Najczęstszym typem zaniedbywania jest zaniedbanie nadzoru nad dzieckiem (supervisory neglect) spowodowane niewydolnością opiekuńczą rodziców lub ich nieobecnością. W rodzinach z dwojgiem rodziców biologicznych zjawisko to występowało rzadziej (4,29% w poprzednim roku) niż w rodzinach o innej strukturze (7,95–14,10%; p <0,05). Wszystkie typy zaniedbywania były związane z nasileniem symptomów traumy i myśli samobójczych (w grupie dzieci i nastolatków w wieku 10–17 lat), a niektóre formy wiązały się z podwyższonym ryzykiem picia alkoholu i używania narkotyków przed osiągnięciem pełnoletniości. Wniosek: Należy poświęcić więcej uwagi skutkom zaniedbywania dzieci. Otrzymane wyniki podkreślają wagę działań profilaktycznych, zapewniających wsparcie niezbędne do budowania bezpiecznych, stabilnych, troskliwych relacji oraz środowisk wspomagających prawidłowy rozwój dziecka.Background: Childhood neglect is an understudied form of childhood maltreatment despite being the most commonly reported to authorities. Objective: This study provides national estimates of neglect subtypes, demographic variations in exposure to neglect subtypes, and examines the psychological impact. Participants and Setting: Pooled data from two representative U.S. samples from the National Surveys of Children’s Exposure to Violence (NatSCEV) survey conducted in 2011 and 2014, representing the experiences of children and youth aged 1 month to 17 years (N=8503). Methods: Telephone surveys were used to obtain sociodemographic characteristics, six measures of past year and lifetime exposure to neglect, and assessments of trauma symptoms, suicidal ideation, alcohol use, and illicit drug use. Results: More than 1 in 17 U.S. children (6.07%) experienced some form of neglect in the past year, and more than 1 in 7 (15.14%) experienced neglect at some point in their lives. Supervisory neglect, due to parental incapacitation or parental absence, was most common. Families with two biological parents had lower rates (4.29% in the past year) than other household configurations (range from 7.95% to 14.10%; p < .05). All types of neglect were associated with increased trauma symptoms and suicidal ideation (for 10–17 year olds), and several were associated with increased risk of underage alcohol and illicit drug use. Conclusion: More attention needs to be paid to the impact of supervisory neglect. These results underscore the importance of prevention strategies that provide the supports necessary to build safe, stable, and nurturing relationships and environments that help children thrive

Developmental Outcomes of Using Physical Violence Against Dates and Peers

PURPOSE: The negative impact on adolescents of being a victim of violence is well documented, but the impact of being a perpetrator of violence is less well known. Knowing the negative outcomes of being a perpetrator could inform clinical interactions with adolescents, development of violence prevention strategies, and estimates of the societal burden of violence. This longitudinal study examined the effects of physical dating violence (DV) and peer violence (PV) perpetration on internalizing symptoms, relationships with friends and family, academic aspirations and grades, and substance use. METHODS: The four-wave longitudinal study (N= 3,979), conducted in two North Carolina counties over 2½ years, spanned grades 8 to 12. Generalized linear mixed models were used to examine prospective lagged effects of each type of violence perpetration on each outcome and sex and grade as moderators of effects. RESULTS: Perpetrating DV significantly predicted lower college aspirations and greater likelihood of marijuana use. The effect of DV perpetration on increased family conflict was moderated by school grade; the effect decreased in significance across grades. Perpetrating PV significantly predicted greater likelihood of cigarette and marijuana use. The effects of PV perpetration on increased internalizing symptoms and alcohol intensity and decreased college aspirations were moderated by school grade; effects decreased in significance across grades. Neither type of perpetration predicted changes in number of reciprocated friendships, social status, or academic grades, and no effects varied by sex. CONCLUSIONS: These detrimental outcomes for the perpetrator need to be considered in clinical interactions with adolescents and violence prevention programming