Original articlePoly-Victimization and Risk of Posttraumatic, Depressive, and Substance Use Disorders and Involvement in Delinquency in a National Sample of Adolescents
Section snippets
Procedure
Data were acquired from the National Survey of Adolescents (NSA) [30], an IRB-approved computer assisted telephone interview. Provisions were made for adolescent confidentiality and for mandated reporting and clinical follow-up when physical or sexual assault were disclosed [31], [32].
Sample
The NSA [30], [32] is a cross-sectional household probability sample of adolescents aged 12–17 years that was representative of the 1995 United States population. Of 5,367 households identified, more than 90% (n =
Latent class analysis of trauma history profiles
The Lo-Mendell-Rubin adjusted likelihood ratio test [34] was used to compare each model with K classes against a model with K – 1 classes [35]. Results showed no significant information was added after a six-class solution, Lo-Mendell-Rubin 2LLdiff(20) = 188.60, p = .002. A six-class solution fit the data, Pearson χ2(16,776,838) = 11,863.15, p > .05, Entropy = .68. Class membership prediction ranged from .72 (Class 3) to .87 (Class 1). Each class had a distinct trauma history profile (Figure 1
Discussion
Mutually exclusive subgroups of adolescents were identified based on distinctive latent class profiles of victimization, with approximately one-third reporting histories consistent with poly-victimization. Adolescents in the poly-victimization subgroups not only were more likely than nontraumatized adolescents to meet criteria for psychiatric disorders, but had double the risk of depression, triple the risk of PTSD, three to five times increased risk of SUDs, and five to eight times increased
Conclusion
Despite these limitations, the study's representative sample of adolescents and validated structured interview measures provide a basis for generalizing the findings to a wide range of adolescents and types of traumatic stressor exposure and to three well-documented and clinically significant health problems associated with victimization among adolescents (PTSD, depression, substance use problems)—as well as to involvement in (or association with peers involved in) juvenile delinquency. The
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