Bountress Kaitlin, Aggen Steven H, Kliewer Wendy
Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine and Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics, Virginia Commonwealth University.
Department of Psychology, Virginia Commonwealth University.
Psychol Violence. 2021 May;11(3):234-243. doi: 10.1037/vio0000364. Epub 2020 Oct 22.
Victimization is common in adolescence and is associated with negative outcomes, including school failure, and poor emotional, behavioral, and physical health. A deeper understanding of the risk of victimization can inform prevention and intervention efforts. This study tests the risky behavior model in adolescents, examining prospective associations between mean levels of and changes in delinquency and risk for victimization over four annual data collections.
Low-income adolescent (53.6% female; = 12.13 years, = 1.62 years; 91.9% African American) and maternal caregiver dyads ( = 358) residing in urban neighborhoods in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States that had moderate-to-high levels of violence and/or poverty completed separate annual home interviews for 4 years. Maternal caregivers reported on adolescents' delinquent behavior; adolescents reported on their victimization by community violence experiences.
Using a latent difference score model, results supported the risky behavior model for the first 2 years, but not the final data collection period. That is, levels of and changes in delinquent behavior were associated with more victimization by community violence at the subsequent time point for the first 2 study years. In contrast, there was no evidence for the opposite, specifically that victimization by community violence predicted delinquency.
Knowing that both levels of delinquency and increases in delinquency place youth at heightened risk for victimization by community violence provides impetus to intervene. Screening for increases in delinquency among youth may be one way to target youth at high risk for victimization by community violence for fast-tracked intervention.
受害现象在青少年中很常见，且与负面后果相关，包括学业失败以及情绪、行为和身体健康不佳。更深入地了解受害风险可为预防和干预工作提供依据。本研究对青少年的危险行为模型进行了测试，在四次年度数据收集过程中，考察了犯罪行为的平均水平及变化与受害风险之间的前瞻性关联。
居住在美国大西洋中部地区城市社区、暴力和/或贫困程度为中度至高度的低收入青少年（女性占53.6%；平均年龄 = 12.13岁，标准差 = 1.62岁；91.9%为非裔美国人）及其母亲照料者二元组（n = 358），连续4年每年分别在家中接受访谈。母亲照料者报告青少年的犯罪行为；青少年报告其遭受社区暴力侵害的经历。
使用潜在差异分数模型，前两年的结果支持危险行为模型，但最后一次数据收集期间不支持。也就是说，在前两个研究年度，犯罪行为的水平及变化与随后时间点遭受更多社区暴力侵害相关。相比之下，没有证据支持相反的情况，即社区暴力侵害不能预测犯罪行为。
了解到犯罪行为的水平及其增加都会使青少年遭受社区暴力侵害的风险升高，这为进行干预提供了动力。筛查青少年犯罪行为的增加情况可能是针对有遭受社区暴力侵害高风险的青少年进行快速干预的一种方法。
