Richter L M, Mathews S, Kagura J, Nonterah E
Department of Science and Technology-National Research Foundation Centre of Excellence in Human Development, Office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Postgraduate Affairs), University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
S Afr Med J. 2018 Feb 27;108(3):181-186. doi: 10.7196/SAMJ.2018.v108i3.12661.
Violence against children is a significant cause of personal suffering and long-term ill health, poor psychological adjustment, and a range of social difficulties, including adverse effects intergenerationally.
Using a large corpus of longitudinal data collected in the Birth to Twenty Plus cohort, to give an overview of exposure to and experience of violence, as well as perpetration of violence, across childhood, reported contemporaneously by several informants. This overcomes limitations of retrospectively recalled information collected from one person at one point in time.
We identified 280 data points relating to exposure to and perpetration of violence in 14 of the 21 waves of data collection from birth to 22 years of age. Data were classified into four developmental stages (preschool, primary school years, adolescence and young adulthood) and seven categories (exposure to violence in the community, home and school; exposure to peer violence; being a victim of violence, excluding sexual violence; sexual violence; and perpetration of violence). Both descriptive and inferential statistics were employed to analyse the data.
Over the past two decades, only 1% of the sample had not been exposed to or experienced violence in their home, school and/or community. Two-thirds of children of schoolgoing age were reported as having been exposed to community violence, and more than half of all children to violence in their home. Reports of sexual violence increased from 10% among primary school-aged children to ~30% among adolescents and young adults. Over the course of their lives, ~40% of children were reported as having been exposed to or being victims of five or six of the categories of violence coded in this analysis. High levels of violence perpetration were reported across childhood. Age and gender differences in exposure to and experience and perpetration of violence were evident, and all categories of violence were more prevalent among poorer and more disadvantaged groups.
Very high levels of violence were reported in all the settings of urban South African children's lives: home, community, school, among peers and in their intimate relationships. Children and youth were also reported to perpetrate high levels of violence. The personal and social costs of violence are very high, resulting in major public health problems due to its avoidable effects on short- and long-term mental and physical health and social adjustment, and intergenerationally.
暴力侵害儿童行为是导致个人痛苦、长期健康不佳、心理调适困难以及一系列社会问题（包括代际负面影响）的重要原因。
利用从出生到二十岁以上队列研究中收集的大量纵向数据，概述多名信息提供者同时报告的儿童期各阶段遭受暴力的情况、暴力经历以及暴力行为。这克服了从一个人在某一时刻回顾性收集信息的局限性。
我们从出生到22岁的21轮数据收集的14轮中确定了280个与遭受暴力和暴力行为相关的数据点。数据被分为四个发育阶段（学前、小学阶段、青春期和青年期）和七类（在社区、家庭和学校遭受暴力；遭受同伴暴力；成为暴力受害者，不包括性暴力；性暴力；以及暴力行为）。采用描述性和推断性统计方法对数据进行分析。
在过去二十年中，样本中只有1%的人在家庭、学校和/或社区中未遭受或经历过暴力。据报告，三分之二的学龄儿童遭受过社区暴力，超过一半的儿童在家中遭受过暴力。性暴力报告从小学年龄儿童中的10%增加到青少年和青年中的约30%。在他们的一生中，约40%的儿童被报告遭受过或成为本分析中编码的五类或六类暴力行为的受害者。据报告，儿童期各阶段暴力行为发生率都很高。在遭受暴力、暴力经历和暴力行为方面，年龄和性别差异明显，所有类型的暴力在较贫困和处境更不利的群体中更为普遍。
据报告，南非城市儿童生活的所有环境（家庭、社区、学校、同伴之间及其亲密关系中）暴力发生率都非常高。据报告，儿童和青少年的暴力行为发生率也很高。暴力行为的个人和社会成本非常高，因其对短期和长期身心健康及社会调适产生可避免的影响，并具有代际影响，从而导致重大的公共卫生问题。
