Suchergebnisse

Data gathered over the course of an 18‐year prospective longitudinal study of more than 1,000 New Zealand children was used to examine the contextual, lifestyle, and childhood risk factors associated with young people's exposure to physical assault in late adolescence. Twenty‐three percent of males compared with 14% of females reported an assault between the ages of 16 and 18 years. However, although the prevalence and nature of young people's physical assault experiences differed in gender specific ways, the concurrent and antecedent risk factors that placed males and females at risk of physical assault were similar. The major predictors of physical assault during late adolescence included childhood measures of behavioral disturbance and parental dysfunction, in addition to measures of adolescent participation in a delinquent lifestyle, such as violent offending, status offending, and the misuse of alcohol. These findings support previous research suggesting a strong link between juvenile delinquency and victimization risk, and they contribute to an understanding of the role of gender and childhood experiences in predicting later risk of physical assault.

PurposeThis paper aims to report on the associations between reports of bullying victimization and bullying perpetration in childhood and subsequent mental health and adjustment difficulties in late adolescence/adulthood (16‐30 years) in a New Zealand birth cohort.Design/methodology/approachThe paper uses data from the Christchurch Health and Development Study, a longitudinal study of a birth cohort of 1,265 individuals born in Christchurch, New Zealand in 1977 and followed to age 30.FindingsThere were general trends for rates of mental health/adjustment problems to be significantly associated with parental reports of bullying victimization in adolescence, and with parent and teacher reports of bullying perpetration in middle childhood or adolescence. Effect sizes were typically in the small to moderate range, and were reduced by covariate adjustment. After adjustment the majority of associations were statistically non‐significant. Effect sizes did not vary significantly with gender or the age at which outcomes were assessed.Originality/valueThe paper confirms that reports of bullying perpetration and victimization in childhood were associated with higher rates of later mental health/adjustment problems. Effect sizes were typically in the small to moderate range and, in the majority of cases, were substantially reduced upon covariate adjustment. Effect size estimates were not significantly different between males and females and did not vary with the age at which outcomes were assessed.

Abstract. This study examined the association between exposure to unemployment and suicidal behaviors (suicidal ideation and attempted suicide) in a birth cohort of New Zealand young adults using fixed-effects logistic and Poisson regression models. Data were gathered on unemployment and suicidal behaviors at annual periods from ages 16-25 years. At all ages increasing exposure to unemployment was associated with increased risks of suicidal ideation (p < .0001) and number of suicide attempts (p < .0001). Following adjustment for fixed effects and time-dynamic covariates, associations between unemployment and suicidal ideation reduced to marginal significance (p < .10), while the association between unemployment and suicide attempts was not statistically significant (p > .10). After adjustment, those experiencing 6 or more months of unemployment in a given year had odds of suicidal ideation that were 1.43 (95% CI: .96 to 2.16) times higher, and rates of suicide attempts that were 1.72 (95% CI: .89 to 3.32) times higher, than those who were not exposed to unemployment. Although unemployment was associated with moderate increases in risks of suicidal behaviors, much of this association was explained by confounding factors.