Citation

Swahn MH, Bossarte RM, Palmier JB, Yao H, Van Dulmen MHM. Vulnerable Child. Youth Stud. 2013; 8(3): 225-236.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/17450128.2012.722702

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

There is a growing body of empirical research indicating a significant co-occurrence of multiple forms of experiences with violence among US youth. However, very little information is available about shared risk factors across forms of violence. Current analyses were based on cross-sectional data from the 2009 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS). The YRBS includes a nationally representative sample (n = 16,410) of high-school students in 9-12th grades in the US. Multinomial regression analyses were conducted to test the associations between risk factors and reports of multiple violence exposures (i.e. physical fights, dating violence, forced sex, and being bullied at school). Among high-school students, 33.0% reported one experience, 11.4% reported two experiences, and 4.0% reported 3-4 experiences with violence. Multinomial regression analyses indicate that experience with 3-4 forms of violence were highly associated with sadness, feeling too unsafe to go to school, early alcohol use, binge drinking, drug use, weapon carrying, asthma, low academic grades, and suicide attempts relative to those who did not report any experience with violence. These findings underscore that multiple experiences with violence are relatively common among US high-school students. Moreover, multiple experiences with violence are associated with a relatively broad range of risk factors. Youth who report multiple experiences with violence seem to be particularly vulnerable and in need of assistance, in particular because of the strong association between multiple violent experiences and suicidal behaviors.