Background
Suicide is a leading cause of death among adolescents and young adults. The current study extends the research linking adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) to suicidal behaviors by testing ...these associations using a nationally representative sample, assessing for suicide ideation and attempts in adulthood, controlling for established risk factors for suicidality, and measuring a broad array of ACEs.
Methods
The sample included 9,421 participants from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health who participated in four waves of assessments spanning 13 years. We examined longitudinal associations between eight different ACEs (physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, neglect, parental death, incarceration, alcoholism, and family suicidality) with suicidal ideation and suicide attempts in adulthood, while controlling for depression, problem alcohol use, drug use, delinquency, impulsivity, gender, race, age, and urbanicity. We also tested for cumulative associations of ACEs with suicide ideation and attempts.
Results
Logistic regression analyses indicated that physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, parental incarceration, and family history of suicidality each increased the risk by 1.4 to 2.7 times for suicidal ideation and suicide attempts in adulthood. The accumulation of ACEs increased the odds of suicide ideation and attempts. Compared with those with no ACEs, the odds of seriously considering suicide or attempting suicide in adulthood increased more than threefold among those with three or more ACEs.
Conclusions
Intervention strategies need to prevent ACEs from occurring and, if they do occur, should take into account the impact of cumulative ACEs on suicide risk. Future research should focus on identifying mediating mechanisms for the ACEs‐suicidality association using longitudinal research designs and determine which ACEs are most important to include in a cumulative ACE measure.
Suicide is the second leading cause of death for older adolescents and young adults. Although empirical literature has identified important risk factors of suicidal behavior, it is less understood if ...changes in risk factors correspond with changes in suicide risk. To address this knowledge gap, we assessed if there were different trajectories of suicidal behavior as youth transition into young adulthood and determined what time-varying risk factors predicted these trajectories. This study used four waves of data spanning approximately 13 years from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. The sample included 9027 respondents who were 12–18 years old (
M
= 15.26; SD = 1.76) at Wave 1, 50% male, 17% Hispanic, and 58% White. The results indicated that 93.6% of the sample had a low likelihood for suicide attempts across time, 5.1% had an elevated likelihood of attempting suicide in adolescence but not young adulthood, and 1.3% had an elevated likelihood of attempting suicide during adolescence and adulthood. The likelihood of a suicide attempt corresponded with changes on depression, impulsivity, delinquency, alcohol problems, family and friend suicide history, and experience with partner violence. Determining how suicide risk changes as youth transition into young adulthood and what factors predict these changes can help prevent suicide. Interventions targeting these risk factors could lead to reductions in suicide attempts.
Purpose
We examined if civic engagement during emerging adulthood positively impacted a broad array of outcomes in middle adulthood, and if associations varied based on race, gender, age, and ...urban-rural status.
Design
Prospective design used to determine if civic engagement during emerging adulthood (M age = 21.81) predicted outcomes 15 years later.
Setting
Restricted data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health.
Subjects
Wave 1 participants who completed surveys 7 years (77% follow-up rate), 14 years (80% follow-up rate), and 22 years later (follow-up rate 72%) and who had valid sampling weight to ensure national representativeness (n = 9349).
Measures
Predictor - civic engagement; Outcomes-mental health, substance use, criminal behaviors, and healthy behavior.
Analysis
Linear regression using MPLUS 7.2.
Results
Civic engagement predicted lower levels of depressive symptoms (b = −1.05, SE = .28), criminal behaviors (b = −.47, SE = .12), and substance use (b = −.66, SE = .13), and higher levels of healthy behaviors (b = 1.26, SE = .19), after controlling for demographics, family, peer, neighborhood, and school-related background variables. Moderation analyses revealed that civic engagement benefited females and white participants more.
Conclusion
Civic engagement during emerging adulthood has a positive impact on a broad array of outcomes in middle adulthood. Implications and future research recommendations will be discussed.
Sexual assault on college campuses is a public health issue. However varying research methodologies (e.g., different sexual assault definitions, measures, assessment timeframes) and low response ...rates hamper efforts to define the scope of the problem. To illuminate the complexity of campus sexual assault, we collected survey data from a large population-based random sample of undergraduate students from Columbia University and Barnard College in New York City, using evidence based methods to maximize response rates and sample representativeness, and behaviorally specific measures of sexual assault to accurately capture victimization rates. This paper focuses on student experiences of different types of sexual assault victimization, as well as sociodemographic, social, and risk environment correlates. Descriptive statistics, chi-square tests, and logistic regression were used to estimate prevalences and test associations. Since college entry, 22% of students reported experiencing at least one incident of sexual assault (defined as sexualized touching, attempted penetration oral, anal, vaginal, other, or completed penetration). Women and gender nonconforming students reported the highest rates (28% and 38%, respectively), although men also reported sexual assault (12.5%). Across types of assault and gender groups, incapacitation due to alcohol and drug use and/or other factors was the perpetration method reported most frequently (> 50%); physical force (particularly for completed penetration in women) and verbal coercion were also commonly reported. Factors associated with increased risk for sexual assault included non-heterosexual identity, difficulty paying for basic necessities, fraternity/sorority membership, participation in more casual sexual encounters ("hook ups") vs. exclusive/monogamous or no sexual relationships, binge drinking, and experiencing sexual assault before college. High rates of re-victimization during college were reported across gender groups. Our study is consistent with prevalence findings previously reported. Variation in types of assault and methods of perpetration experienced across gender groups highlight the need to develop prevention strategies tailored to specific risk groups.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Objective: This study's purpose was to determine if COVID-related stress predicted suicide risk among college students and if this risk was attenuated by higher levels of social and psychological ...resources. Participants: The sample included 65,142 college students who participated in the National College Health Assessment survey in Spring 2021. Methods: SPSS PROCESS was used to test the association between COVID-related stress and suicide risk while controlling for demographic covariates and to determine the potential stress-buffering roles of social connectedness, resiliency, and psychological well-being. Results: Higher levels of COVID-related stress predicted increased suicide risk yet this risk was attenuated when social connectedness, resiliency, and psychological flourishing were greater. Conclusions: Findings indicate that efforts to increase social connectedness, resiliency, and psychological flourishing could help reduce the risk of college students' suicidality under conditions of high COVID-related stress.
Suicide is an urgent public health problem. The purpose of this study was to determine if adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) increased the risk for suicide ideations and attempts approximately 22 ...years later, and if sexual victimization (SV) in adulthood mediated these associations. Prospective data from a nationally representative sample of 10,914 participants in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health were used to test direct associations of ACEs (physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, neglect, family history of suicide attempts, and parental death, alcoholism, and incarceration) with suicide ideation and attempts and their indirect effects through sexual victimization in adulthood. All but one ACE significantly predicted increased odds of making a suicide attempt. Physical, sexual, and emotional abuse as well as family history of suicide attempts and parental incarceration predicted seriously considering suicide. All forms of childhood abuse and family history of suicide attempts predicted increased odds of sexual victimization. In multivariate longitudinal models controlling for age, race, and gender, the odds of seriously considering suicide and making a suicide attempt increased as the number of ACEs increased. Experiencing two or more ACEs also was associated with an increased likelihood of experiencing sexual victimization in adulthood, which in turn mediated the effects of ACEs on suicide ideation but not suicide attempts. Findings indicate that reducing ACEs is an important strategy for suicide prevention not only due to ACEs' direct association with suicide ideation and attempts, but also due to their indirect association via subsequent sexual victimization.
Public Policy Relevance Statement
Suicide is a significant public health problem. This study used a large, nationally representative sample to show that adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) increased the risk for suicide ideation and attempts 22 years later and that sexual violence experienced in adulthood contributed to this increased risk. Preventing ACEs and sexual violence could ultimately reduce suicidal behavior and attempts.
The US Campus Sexual Assault Violence Elimination (SaVE) Act of 2013 mandates that all higher education institutions receiving federal funds offer incoming students primary prevention and awareness ...programming addressing sexual violence. Yet, there is no thorough and up-to-date quantitative synthesis of the effects of campus sexual assault prevention programs on sexual assault attitudes/knowledge and behaviors. Thus, we conducted a systematic review of the literature and a meta-analysis of experimental and high-quality quasi-experimental research examining effects of college sexual assault prevention programs on sexual assault attitudes and behaviors. Our synthesis of 385 effect sizes from 80 eligible studies disseminated between 1991 and 2021 indicates campus sexual assault programs have a more pronounced effect on attitudes/knowledge than on violence. Effects on sexual assault victimization were significant but small (g = 0.15) and effects on sexual assault perpetration were nonsignificant. Moderator analyses indicate programs that use a risk reduction framework are associated with less favorable outcomes than programs that do not use a risk reduction framework. Considering the limited effect of campus sexual assault prevention programs on violence, we recommend programming efforts move beyond a focus on individuals and, instead, adopt an ecological perspective targeting individuals, social relationships, community factors, and societal factors.
Abstract Purpose Preventing sexual aggression (SA) can be informed by determining if time-varying risk factors differentiate men who follow different sexual aggression risk trajectories. Methods Data ...are from a longitudinal study with 795 college males surveyed at the end of each of their 4 years of college in 2008–2011. Repeated measures general linear models tested if changes in risk factors corresponded with sexual aggression trajectory membership. Results Changes in the risk factors corresponded with SA trajectories. Men who came to college with a history of SA but decreased their perpetration likelihood during college showed concurrent decreases in sexual compulsivity, impulsivity, hostile attitudes toward women, rape supportive beliefs, perceptions of peer approval of forced sex, and perceptions of peer pressure to have sex with many different women, and smaller increases in pornography use over their college years. Conversely, men who increased levels of SA over time demonstrated larger increases in risk factors in comparison to other trajectory groups. Conclusions The odds that males engaged in sexual aggression corresponded with changes in key risk factors. Risk factors were not static and interventions designed to alter them may lead to changes in sexual aggression risk.
We examined the associations between women's behavioral coping responses during sexual assault and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, and the moderating role of alexithymia in college ...women (N = 152). Immobilized responses (b = 0.52, p < .001), childhood SA (b = 0.18, p = .01), and alexithymia (b = 0.34, p < .001) significantly predicted PTSD. The interaction between immobilized responses and alexithymia was significant (b = 0.39, p = .002), indicating a stronger association for those higher in alexithymia. Immobilized responses are associated with PTSD, particularly for those with difficulty identifying and labeling emotions.
Objective Preventing sexual violence among college students is a public health priority. This paper was catalyzed by a summit convened in 2018 to review the state of the science on campus sexual ...violence prevention. We summarize key risk and vulnerability factors and campus-based interventions, and provide directions for future research pertaining to campus sexual violence. Results and Conclusions: Although studies have identified risk factors for campus sexual violence, longitudinal research is needed to examine time-varying risk factors across social ecological levels (individual, relationship, campus context/broader community and culture) and data are particularly needed to identify protective factors. In terms of prevention, promising individual and relational level interventions exist, including active bystander, resistance, and gender transformative approaches; however, further evidence-based interventions are needed, particularly at the community-level, with attention to vulnerability factors and inclusion for marginalized students.
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