Suchergebnisse

It is argued that recent surveys of drug use among youths in the general US population indicating that drug use has declined are biased for failing to consider dropouts & institutionalized youth, including drug use among juvenile detainees. Here, a review of the literature & an ongoing longitudinal study of 399 juvenile detainees in Tampa, Fla, are drawn on to document their drug use & related problems, leading to the identification of five key areas for national policy & program development: early intervention; quality screening & assessment; providing quality, community-based services; improving linkages between community agencies; & continuity of services. Youths entering the juvenile justice system often require repeated interventions over a protracted period, reinforced by improvements in their social, vocational, & educational skills, if their lives are to be directed in socially responsible ways. Abstracted from the source document.

Given the prevalence of victimization, especially among college-age populations, we all have students who have experienced their own victimization or the victimization of someone close to them. Violent victimization rates are highest among those age 18 to 24, an estimated one in four to five women experience an attempted or completed sexual assault during their college career, and most victims of rape, physical violence, and/or stalking by an intimate partner were first victimized before the age of 25. Some victims may be visible, in that they choose to share their experiences with you or the class, or their experience is otherwise public, but many will remain invisible. Course material related to victimization holds the potential to trigger emotional reactions, which are not limited to victims and survivors. Students who have experienced other types of trauma, such as military veterans, as well as any student with the emotional capacity for empathy, could have a strong reaction to materials on victimization. For example, realizing that engaging in preventive efforts cannot guarantee safety can be very unsettling. Given this reality, how can we teach about the often complicated nature of victimization in a manner that does not inflict additional harm?

Literature on gender and child sexual abuse (CSA) has highlighted patterns of similarity and difference among survivors and the need for further research. This study relied on gender analysis of 128 women and 69 men, obtained through an examination of childhood hospital records, to further examine gender differences in mental health outcomes among abuse survivors and correlates of mental health outcomes including professional help seeking, family environment, and other trauma exposure. Overall, men and women were similar in the context and consequences of CSA. The role of the characteristics of CSA and contextual variables in explaining variance in mental health for 106 male victims and nonvictims was also examined. Among male participants, number of incidents of sexual abuse, injury at the hands of a caregiver, and exposure to other traumas significantly explained higher levels of an array of mental health symptoms. Implications for future research are discussed.

The current study examined (a) maternal depression as a mediator between mothers' complex trauma exposure and parenting difficulties and (b) protective factors within a sample of adult survivors of complex child and adult trauma. Participants were a sample of 152 women selected from 174 women interviewed in the third wave of a longitudinal study of a hospital sample of girls. The women in the current study represent a subsample that includes all participants who had given birth to a child. Measures included assessments of women's own trauma history and parenting outcomes. Higher rates of trauma exposure were related to decreased parenting satisfaction, reports of child neglect, use of physical punishment, and a history of protective service reports. These links were partially mediated by the relationship between trauma exposure and increased maternal depression. Exploratory analyses were also conducted to examine protective factors for fewer parenting problems within a further subsample of trauma survivors.

This study is a prospective investigation of adult sexual revictimization among 113 Black women with documented histories of childhood sexual abuse. The purpose was to obtain information on the frequency of sexual abuse in both childhood and adulthood and to determine which characteristics of the child sexual abuse were predictive of revictimization. Thirty percent of the participants were revictimized and physical force predicted subsequent victimization. This study also investigated possible sexual behavioral correlates of revictimization. Revictimized women reported more involvement in prostitution and partner violence. Finally, the present study considered the reproductive and sexual health correlates of revictimization. When compared to women abused in childhood only, revictimized women experienced more problems conceiving, repeated vaginal infections, sexually transmitted diseases, and painful intercourse. Suggestions for intervention are discussed.

Cluster analysis is applied to substance use and delinquency data collected in a longitudinal study of juvenile detainees to empirically derive five groups of youths from information gathered at their initial interviews (time 1): alcohol/marijuana-hashish users, low-level delinquents, alcohol/ marijuana-hashish and cocaine-using nondelinquents, high delinquency, cocaine users, and heavy cocaine-using nondelinquents. The validity of the typology was supported by a variety of other initial interview and follow-up interview alcohol/other drug use and delinquency data, and by recidivism information — including data on arrests during the three-and-a-half years following the date of the youths' first interviews. Research and policy implications of the findings are drawn.