Jim Liebelt's Youth Culture Watch

Adolescent Girls Face Alarming Rates of Intimate Partner Violence

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by MedicalXpress.

Among adolescent girls who have been in a relationship, nearly a quarter (24%)—close to 19 million—will have experienced physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence by the time they turn 20 years old, as highlighted by a new analysis from the World Health Organization (WHO) published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health. Almost one in six (16%) experienced such violence in the past year.

"Intimate partner violence is starting alarmingly early for millions of young women around the world," said Dr. Pascale Allotey, Director of WHO's Sexual and Reproductive Health and Research Department. "Given that violence during these critical formative years can cause profound and lasting harm, it needs to be taken more seriously as a public health issue—with a focus on prevention and targeted support."

This study draws on existing data to provide, for the first time, a detailed analysis of the prevalence of physical and/or sexual partner violence experienced by 15–19 year-old girls who have been in intimate relationships. It also identifies broader social, economic and cultural factors that increase their risks.

While violence against adolescent girls occurs everywhere, the authors highlight significant differences in prevalence.

Based on WHO's estimates, the worst affected regions are Oceania (47%) and central sub-Saharan Africa (40%), for instance, while the lowest rates are in central Europe (10%) and central Asia (11%). Between countries, there is also a substantive range: from an estimated 6% of adolescent girls subjected to such violence in the least affected countries, to 49% in those with the highest rates.

The study highlights the urgent need to strengthen support services and early prevention measures tailored for adolescents, alongside actions to advance women's and girls' agency and rights—from school-based programs that educate both boys and girls on healthy relationships and violence prevention, to legal protections, and economic empowerment.

Source: MedicalXpress
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-07-adolescent-girls-alarming-intimate-partner.html

Gun Laws Help Lower Suicides, not Murders, Among Children

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by HealthDay.

Restrictive gun laws can decrease suicide rates among children and teenagers, but they don’t seem to lower their risk of being murdered, a new study says.

States with laws requiring safe storage of firearms and mandatory waiting periods had lower suicide death rates among kids younger than 18, researchers report.

However, no gun laws appeared to lower children’s risk of being murdered by a firearm, even those that prohibit access for people at risk of harming themselves and others, result show.

“It was surprising to me that no laws appear to be impacting the rates of homicide in children, not even safe access,” said lead researcher Dr. Krista Haines, an assistant professor of surgery and population health sciences at Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, N.C. “It’s sad and shocking.”

For the study, researchers analyzed data on more than 17,000 child firearm deaths that occurred between 2009 and 2020, including more than 6,700 suicides and more than 10,200 murders.

They compared 36 different state-level firearm laws to see if any appeared to reduce or increase the risk of suicide or homicide for children.

The analysis “suggests that we do actually have some laws that work,” Haines said in a news release.

“But there are very few of these laws, and they only appear to work for suicide, not for homicide,” she continued. “Our study clearly points to a need for more laws and controlled access to these guns, especially given the high rates of death among children in the United States.”

Source: HealthDay
https://www.healthday.com/health-news/child-health/gun-laws-help-lower-suicides-not-murders-among-children

Schools Focusing on Grades Over Learning See More Violence Against Teachers

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by StudyFinds.

Are schools which put too much emphasis on grades putting teachers in danger? A troubling new study finds that schools which place higher focus on test scores and bottom-line results instead of student learning are more likely to see children use violence against their teachers.

Conducted by researchers, including Professor Eric Anderman from The Ohio State University, the study surveyed over 9,000 teachers throughout the United States. These educators reported on the instructional focus at their schools and any experiences of violence directed at them by their students. This included physical attacks, verbal threats, or damage to property by students, parents, colleagues, or school administrators.

“What was really striking was this performance culture predicted all kinds of increased violence by students, whether it be physical violence, verbal threatening or property violence,” says Eric Anderman, lead author of the study and professor of educational psychology at Ohio State, in a university release.

“It wasn’t the mastery part. It was when there’s this focus on grades and test scores – ‘you’ve got to get good grades, school is all about grades’ – that’s when kids acted out against teachers.”

The study, which spanned from fall 2019 through the 2020-2021 academic year, also explored how school culture impacts teacher safety and student behavior. Teachers reported on the various types of violence they encountered, such as objects thrown at them, and obscene gestures made by kids. Researchers then assessed their school’s culture through statements reflecting either a mastery-focused (learning) or performance-focused (grades and test scores) climate.

The findings were published in the Journal of School Violence.

Source: StudyFinds
https://studyfinds.org/grades-violence-against-teachers/

Most School Shootings Aren’t Mass Killings, Study Finds

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by AOL.

Many Americans think of school shootings as mass casualty events involving an adolescent with an assault-style weapon. But a new study says that most recent school shootings orchestrated by teenagers do not fit that image — and they are often related to community violence.

The study, published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, analyzed 253 school shootings carried out by 262 adolescents in the US between 1990 and 2016.

It found that these adolescents were responsible for only a handful of mass casualty shootings, defined as those involving four or more gunshot fatalities. About half of the shootings analyzed — 119 — involved at least one death. Among the events, seven killed four or more people.

A majority of the shootings analyzed also involved handguns rather than assault rifles or shotguns, and they were often the result of “interpersonal disputes,” according to researchers from the University of South Carolina and the University of Florida.

“When you look at gun violence across the country, a big subset of that is suicide and community violence, which is largely committed by the use of handguns, not assault rifles and so on,” said Dr. Chethan Sathya, a pediatric surgeon and trauma director at Cohen Children’s Medical Center and director of the Center for Gun Violence Prevention at Northwell Health.

An overwhelming majority of the 262 adolescent shooters were male, with an average age of 16. But unlike many of the school shootings that make headlines, Sathya said, nearly 60% of the shooters in the study were Black. About 28% were White, and 8% were Latino. Another 5.7% represented other racial or ethnic groups, including Asian or Pacific Islander and indigenous peoples of the Americas.

More than half of the shooters got the firearm they used from a family member or a relative. About 30% got a weapon from the illegal market, while 22% obtained weapons from friends or acquaintances.

Source: AOL
https://www.aol.com/most-school-shootings-aren-t-160430047.html

Homicide a Leading Cause of Death for Kids, Teens

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by HealthDay.

Homicide has become a leading killer of children, with guns being the most common weapon used in their deaths, a recent study shows.

The overall rate of homicides in children has grown about 4.3% each year for a decade, with a steep rise seen between 2019 and 2020, when the number of kids who died by homicide rose 27.7%.

Firearm-related homicides rose 47.7% between 2019 and 2020, according to the study by researchers at the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, the U.S. Department of Defense, and Georgia State University's School of Public Health. The findings were published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics.

Black male teens were impacted most: The homicide rate for Black males ages 16 to 17 was 18 times higher than that for white males and 4.6 times higher than for Hispanic males.

While the increases weren't surprising, "that doesn't mean they're not alarming," Dr. Elinore Kaufman, an assistant professor in the department of surgery at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, told CNN.

More than 38,000 U.S. children were homicide victims between 1999 and 2020, the researchers found using National Vital Statistics System's mortality data. This includes death certificates for U.S. residents and the National Violent Death Reporting System.

In a separate study published in the same journal, researchers found rates of firearm injuries seen at children's hospitals had grown significantly in 2020 and 2021. They increased by 52%, from 1,815 between April 2018 and December 2019, compared to 2,759 from April 20 through December 2021.

Source: HealthDay
https://consumer.healthday.com/homicide-a-leading-cause-of-death-for-kids-teens-2658985052.html

Eliminating Sexual Violence Could Reduce Poor Mental Health Among Teens

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by MedicalXpress.

The prevalence of serious mental health problems among 17-year-olds could drop by as much as 16.8% for girls and 8.4% for boys if they were not subjected to sexual violence, such as sexual assault and harassment, according to estimates from UCL researchers.

The new research, published in The Lancet Psychiatry, uses information from 9,971 young people born across the UK in 2000-02, who are being followed by the Millennium Cohort Study. At the age of 17, just over 1,000 girls and 260 boys reported they had experienced sexual assault or an unwelcome sexual approach in the previous 12 months.

The researchers found that rates of two serious mental health problems—severe psychological distress and self-harm—were higher, on average, among victims than among those who did not report experiencing sexual assault or harassment by at this age. This was true even when taking into account a wide range of other factors known to affect teenagers' risk of experiencing sexual violence and mental ill health.

The authors calculated that in a hypothetical scenario where sexual assault and harassment were eliminated, rates of self-harm among teenage girls might drop by 16.8%—from the current level of 28.9% in a world with these forms of sexual violence to 24% (a five-percentage point reduction) in a world without. Additionally, high levels of psychological distress might drop by 14% (22.6% vs. 19.5%).

Among boys, the researchers anticipated rates of self-harm could drop by 8.4% (20.3% vs. 18.6%) and severe psychological distress by 3.7% (10.2% vs. 9.8%) if sexual assault and harassment were eradicated.

The authors noted several limitations of their study. Sexual violence is known to be underreported, and the authors recognize that teenagers with and without serious mental health problems may differ in their likelihood of reporting such experiences.

Finally, as this is an observational study, the authors noted the challenges in establishing cause and effect. The study makes use of very detailed data to account for a wide range of factors that may have influenced the link between experiences of sexual assault and harassment and serious mental health problems. However, it would be impossible to rule out with certainty the influence of every possible factor.

Source: MedicalXpress
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-10-sexual-violence-poor-mental-health.html

Classroom Insecurity: 1 in 3 Teens Worldwide Don’t Feel Safe in Their Own School

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by StudyFinds.

A new study from Finland’s University of Turku finds adolescents around the globe fear for their safety with one in three saying they feel unsafe in their own school.

Overall, their survey of more than 21,000 teens between 13 and 15 discovered that 31.4 percent feel unsafe at school. Importantly, these children did not come from the United States, researchers surveyed adolescents from 13 nations throughout Europe and Asia between 2011 and 2017.

On one end of the spectrum, two in three children in Japan say they feel unsafe when they go to class, with 69.8 percent of girls and 68.2 percent of boys saying this. On the opposite end, just 11.5 percent of girls in Finland and 7.7 percent of boys in Norway fear going to school.

The study found that if a student feels their teacher cares about them, they’re more likely to feel safe in school. Fair, clear, and consistent rules while in class also contributed to a student’s feeling of safety.

Meanwhile, students who experience bullying reported feeling less safe on school grounds. Researchers add that the result of feeling less safe at school can lead to mental health problems, which stay with a child throughout their life.

“Physically, cognitively and emotionally safe school environment is essential for the development and educational success of children and young people. All children have the right to attend schools where they can feel safe and protected without fear or anxiety of any danger. In the wake of recent school shootings, we must take steps to enhance safety in educational settings and protect students from all forms of violence and abuse,” said research leader Dr. Andre Sourander.

Source: StudyFinds
https://www.studyfinds.org/teens-dont-feel-safe-in-school/

Being Bullied Often Leads Teens to Thoughts of Violence

*The following is excerpted from an online article posted on HealthDay.

Bullied and mistreated teens are much more likely to fantasize about hurting or killing others, a new study warns.

"One way to think about fantasies is as our brain rehearsing future scenarios," said lead author Manuel Eisner, director of the University of Cambridge Violence Research Center in the U.K.

His research included more than 1,400 young people in Zurich, Switzerland, who were asked about their thoughts and experiences at ages 15, 17, and 20. Among other things, they were asked whether they'd had violent thoughts in the last month, and the types of bullying or aggression they had faced in the past year.

Researchers also asked about participants' experiences with 23 forms of victimization, including taunts, physical attacks, and sexual harassment by peers; aggressive parenting such as yelling and slapping; and dating violence such as being pressured into sex.

Most reported at least one type of victimization. But being subjected to a range of mistreatment was closely linked with increased thinking about killing, attacking, or humiliating others.

Boys were generally more likely to have violent thoughts, but the effect of multiple types of victimization on violent fantasies was similar in both boys and girls.

The rate of violent fantasies in the last month among 17-year-old boys who had not been victimized in the preceding year was 56%. Every additional type of mistreatment increased the probability of violent fantasies by up to 8%.

Those who reported five forms of victimization had an 85% likelihood of having had violent fantasies. That rose to 97% among those who reported 10 forms of victimization.

Among 17-year-old girls, violent fantasy probability was 23% among those who reported no victimization; 59% among those who reported five types of mistreatment; and 73% in those who said they had suffered 10.

The influence of victimization on violent fantasies didn't lessen as study participants grew up, suggesting that the intensity of this mental health effect may not fade, according to the authors of the study published in the journal Aggressive Behavior.

Source: HealthDay
https://consumer.healthday.com/b-4-28-being-bullied-often-leads-teens-to-thoughts-of-violence-2652792928.html

Children Exposed to Intimate Partner Violence Twice as Likely to Have Poorer Health

*The following is excerpted from an online article posted on MedicalXpress.

A new study has found up to half of all children with language difficulties and mental and physical health problems have been exposed to intimate partner violence, prompting calls for health and social care services to provide more effective identification and early intervention.

The research, led by the Murdoch Children's Research Institute (MCRI) and published in the Archives of Disease in Childhood, showed children exposed to intimate partner violence from infancy were twice as likely to have a psychiatric diagnosis, emotional and behavioral difficulties, and impaired language skills at age 10. They were also more likely to have asthma and sleep problems.

The study also found that children exposed to intimate partner violence in the year they turned 10 were two to three times more likely to experience poor mental health, elevated blood pressure, and sleep difficulties. But with the exception of language difficulties and asthma, child health outcomes at age 10 were not affected if their only exposure to intimate partner violence occurred before they turned five.

The research involved 1507 first-time mothers and their first-born children. Women were recruited to the study from six public maternity hospitals in Melbourne. More than one in four women and children in the study were exposed to intimate partner violence during the first 10 years after the child's birth.

Source: MedicalXpress
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-04-children-exposed-intimate-partner-violence.html

Domestic Violence Cases Spike After Covid-19

*The following is excerpted from an online article posted on Medical Daily.

After the pandemic was declared in March, the U.S. government issued orders to enforce social distancing, closure of schools and prohibition of large gatherings. These measures affected crime rates and distribution across the country.

Burglary of homes was reduced due to people spending more time indoors, not giving opportunities to thieves. However, domestic violence increased with more contact between violent family members and their victims in the U.S.

A recent study led by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), examined the types of crimes that increased during the quarantine. The team focused on two cities, namely Los Angeles and Indianapolis, after the restrictions were implemented on schools, restaurants, and bars from March 16 onwards. While stay-at-home orders were announced on March 20 in Los Angeles, it was enforced on March 24 in Indianapolis.

Upon examination of phone calls received by the police between January 2 and April 18  in Los Angeles and from January 2 to April 21 in Indianapolis, it was found that shelter-in-place rules caused an increase in calls reporting domestic violence. Researchers proceeded to scan crime statistics on investigations conducted by the police.

"During the COVID-19 pandemic, both Los Angeles and Indianapolis already have seen significant increases in domestic violence calls to the police, and we know domestic violence is one of the crimes least reported to the police," Jeffrey Brantingham, the study's senior author and UCLA professor of anthropology, said in the news release.

Source: Medical Daily
https://www.medicaldaily.com/los-angeles-indianapolis-witness-spike-domestic-violence-cases-after-covid-19-453947