Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Department of Youth and Family, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
J Abnorm Child Psychol. 2018 May;46(4):839-848. doi: 10.1007/s10802-017-0325-2.
Despite evidence of a positive link between depressive symptoms and violent behaviors, the pathways underlying this longitudinal association remain unknown. Depressive symptoms might drive and reinforce victimization which in turn could increase risk of individuals becoming violent towards others. Thus, we tested whether victimization mediated the link between depressive symptoms and violent behaviors using a 6-year longitudinal study of a community sample of adolescents. The sample included 682 Dutch adolescents (54% boys) from an ongoing longitudinal study RADAR (Research on Adolescent Development and Relationships). From ages 13 to 18 years, depressive symptoms, victimization experiences, and violent behaviors were annually assessed. We conducted longitudinal mediation analyses to test pathways to violence in adolescents with depressive symptoms. Longitudinal analyses revealed that victimization mediated the association between depressive symptoms and violent behaviors from early to late adolescence. As part of this, we found that adolescents' depressive symptoms predicted victimization, and this victimization increased risk of subsequent violent behaviors. In conclusion, links between depressive symptoms and violent behaviors are potentially important to understand adolescent development. Decreasing the occurence of victimization is likely to be an important target for the prevention of violent behaviors in adolescents with depressive symptoms.
尽管有证据表明抑郁症状与暴力行为之间存在正相关，但这种纵向关联的潜在机制尚不清楚。抑郁症状可能会导致和加强受害情况，而受害情况反过来又可能增加个体对他人实施暴力的风险。因此，我们使用一项对青少年社区样本进行的为期 6 年的纵向研究来测试受害情况是否在抑郁症状和暴力行为之间的联系中起中介作用。该样本包括来自正在进行的 RADAR（青少年发展和关系研究）纵向研究的 682 名荷兰青少年（54%为男性）。在 13 至 18 岁期间，每年评估一次抑郁症状、受害经历和暴力行为。我们进行了纵向中介分析，以测试具有抑郁症状的青少年的暴力行为途径。纵向分析显示，从早期到晚期青少年期，受害情况在抑郁症状和暴力行为之间起中介作用。在这其中，我们发现青少年的抑郁症状预测了受害情况，而这种受害情况增加了随后发生暴力行为的风险。总之，抑郁症状和暴力行为之间的联系对于理解青少年的发展至关重要。减少受害情况的发生可能是预防具有抑郁症状的青少年发生暴力行为的一个重要目标。
