University at Albany School of Public Health, State University of New York, USA.
J Interpers Violence. 2022 Aug;37(15-16):NP13978-NP14007. doi: 10.1177/08862605211006366. Epub 2021 Apr 16.
Violence and other antisocial behaviors, including fighting and weapon carrying, are highly prevalent among adolescents but usually decrease in young adulthood. Childhood adversities, including exposure to abuse, intimate partner violence, and household substance use and mental health problems, have been linked to violent behaviors in adolescence and adulthood. However, few studies of childhood adversity as determinants of persistent violent behavior among community-based samples have been conducted. Furthermore, the effects of adversity timing and duration on subsequent violent behaviors are unclear. We examined the association between five childhood adversity trajectories (representing stable-low, stable-mild, decreasing, increasing, and stable-high adversity from birth through age 11.5 years) and physical fighting and weapon carrying at ages 13-20 years among a sample of young adults followed continuously since birth from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children ( = 9,665). The prevalence of violent behaviors declined sharply as participants aged (e.g., whereas 42.8% reported engaging in physical fighting in the past year at ages 13-15 years, this dropped to 10.4% at ages 17-20 years). Childhood adversity trajectories exhibited a strong dose-response relation with physical fighting and weapon carrying, with particularly pronounced relations for violent behaviors persisting across both adolescence and early adulthood (e.g., for physical fighting at both ages 13-15 years and 17-20 years compared to no fighting at either period, adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 1.62, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.31-2.00 for stable-mild; aOR = 2.33, 95% CI = 1.64-3.33 for decreasing; aOR = 3.18, 95% CI = 2.20-4.60 for increasing; and aOR = 3.73, 95% CI = 2.13-6.52 for stable-high adversity, compared to stable-low adversity). This work highlights the substantial implications of exposure to childhood adversity for youth violence prevention.
暴力和其他反社会行为，包括打架和携带武器，在青少年中非常普遍，但通常在成年早期会减少。儿童时期的逆境，包括遭受虐待、亲密伴侣暴力、家庭物质使用和心理健康问题，与青少年和成年期的暴力行为有关。然而，很少有研究关注儿童逆境作为社区样本中持续暴力行为的决定因素。此外，逆境的时间和持续时间对随后的暴力行为的影响尚不清楚。我们研究了从出生到 11.5 岁的五个儿童逆境轨迹（代表稳定低、稳定轻度、减少、增加和稳定高逆境）与出生后连续随访的年轻成年人（n=9665）在 13-20 岁时的身体打架和携带武器之间的关联。随着参与者年龄的增长，暴力行为的流行率急剧下降（例如，在 13-15 岁时，42.8%的人报告在过去一年中参与过身体打架，而在 17-20 岁时，这一比例下降到 10.4%）。儿童逆境轨迹与身体打架和携带武器之间存在很强的剂量反应关系，特别是在青少年和成年早期持续存在的暴力行为方面表现出明显的关系（例如，与两个时期都不打架相比，在 13-15 岁和 17-20 岁时都进行身体打架，调整后的优势比[aOR] = 1.62，95%置信区间[CI] = 1.31-2.00 为轻度稳定；aOR = 2.33，95%CI = 1.64-3.33 为减少；aOR = 3.18，95%CI = 2.20-4.60 为增加；aOR = 3.73，95%CI = 2.13-6.52 为稳定高逆境，与稳定低逆境相比）。这项工作强调了暴露于儿童逆境对青年暴力预防的重大影响。
