Brown School of Social Work, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA.
National Coalition of Independent Scholars, USA.
Child Abuse Negl. 2024 Apr;150:106336. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2023.106336. Epub 2023 Jul 11.
Violence against children and youth poses public health risks regarding mental health symptoms and substance use. Less studied is the relationship between violence and mental health/substance abuse in the Latin American context. This study explored sex-stratified relationships between violence and mental health/substance use among Colombian youth.
We analyzed the 2018 Colombian Violence Against Children and Youth Survey, which collected cross-sectional data from Colombian youth (13-24 years) (n = 2705). Exposure variables were (i) binary sexual, emotional, and physical victimization and (ii) poly-victimization. The outcomes were binary suicidal thoughts, self-harm, past-month psychological distress, binge drinking, smoking, and drug use. Sex-stratified, logistic regressions were adjusted for age, primary school, parental presence, relationship status, and witnessing community violence.
For females, (i) emotional violence (compared to being unexposed) was associated with greater odds of suicidal thoughts, self-harm, and psychological distress and (ii) sexual violence was associated with suicidal thoughts and self-harm. For males, (i) emotional violence (compared to being unexposed) was associated with greater odds of suicidal thoughts and psychological distress, but not self-harm and (ii) sexual violence exposure was associated with suicidal thoughts and self-harm. Physical violence was generally not associated with internalized mental health outcomes for females/males, when emotional and sexual violence were held constant. Poly-victimization was consistently and positively associated with internalized mental health symptoms among females, and to a lesser degree for males. Substance use outcomes for males or females were not associated with violence.
Findings highlight the internalized mental health burden of emotional and sexual violence.
针对儿童和青少年的暴力行为对心理健康症状和物质使用构成公共健康风险。在拉丁美洲背景下，关于暴力行为与心理健康/物质滥用之间的关系研究较少。本研究探讨了哥伦比亚青年中暴力行为与心理健康/物质使用之间的性别分层关系。
我们分析了 2018 年哥伦比亚针对儿童和青少年的暴力行为调查，该调查从哥伦比亚青年（13-24 岁）（n=2705 人）中收集了横断面数据。暴露变量为（i）二元性的情感、身体和性受害，以及（ii）多重受害。结果为二元性自杀意念、自残、过去一个月的心理困扰、狂饮、吸烟和药物使用。性别分层逻辑回归调整了年龄、小学、父母在场、关系状况和目睹社区暴力等因素。
对于女性，（i）情感暴力（与未暴露相比）与自杀意念、自残和心理困扰的几率增加有关，以及（ii）性暴力与自杀意念和自残有关。对于男性，（i）情感暴力（与未暴露相比）与自杀意念和心理困扰的几率增加有关，但与自残无关，以及（ii）性暴力暴露与自杀意念和自残有关。当控制情感和性暴力时，身体暴力通常与女性/男性的内化心理健康结果无关。多重受害与女性内化心理健康症状始终呈正相关，而对男性的影响较小。男性/女性的物质使用结果与暴力无关。
研究结果强调了情感和性暴力行为对内化心理健康的负担。
