The Association Between Dating Violence and Student Absenteeism Among a Representative Sample of U.S. High School Students: Findings From the 2019 Youth Risk Behavior Survey Survey.

Student absenteeism affects students' engagement in school and academic and professional success. While research documents a significant association between school bullying/fighting and student absenteeism due to fear of being at school or getting to school, little research has examined the association of adolescent dating violence (ADV) victimization with this type of absenteeism. This study examined the relationship between physical and/or sexual ADV victimization in the past year (dichotomized as yes or no), and number of days of student absenteeism due to feeling unsafe at school or on the way to school in the past month (dichotomized as any vs. none). We analyzed cross-sectional data from the 2019 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), a nationally representative survey of U.S. high school students (n = 9507). We conducted crude and multivariate regression models for the total sample and stratified by sex to assess our hypothesized association of ADV victimization and absenteeism; sex, grade, race/ethnicity, and sexual identity were included as covariates in adjusted models. Findings demonstrate that students reporting past year ADV victimization had 3.69 times the odds of student absenteeism due to feeling unsafe, when compared to students who did not report ADV victimization (95% CI: 3.06-4.45, p < 0.001). Sex-stratified models reveal that this effect is significantly stronger for males than for females, as indicated by non-overlapping confidence intervals (male AOR: 5.67, 95% CI: 4.18-7.68; female AOR: 2.95, 95% CI: 2.32-3.74). The multivariate models also show that Black and Latinx compared with White students, and lesbian/gay/bisexual/unsure compared with heterosexual students, had higher odds of student absenteeism due to feeling unsafe. Findings indicate the need to address ADV victimization and student absenteeism with integrated and gender-tailored responses, and with consideration of greater vulnerabilities for queer students and students of color.

COVID-19 burden, author affiliation and women's well-being: A bibliometric analysis of COVID-19 related publications including focus on low- and middle-income countries.

Background: Published literature documents tremendous gender inequities in the social, economic and health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, but less evidence has come from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and even less from LMIC-based authors. We examine whether a) COVID-19 burden and b) LMIC-based authorship were associated with academic publications related to COVID-19 and women's well-being in LMICs. Methods: We reviewed academic articles on COVID-19 and women's well-being in LMICs published between February 2020 and May 2021 (n=1076 articles), using six electronic databases (PubMed, Web of Science, PsycInfo, EconLit, RePeC, NBER). Multilevel, mixed effects linear regressions assessed the relationships between each of our independent variables - a) COVID-19 burden (cases/100 population, deaths/100 population, deaths/cases) and b) author's country of primary affiliation, with publications related to COVID-19 and women's well-being, both overall and stratified by country income group. Findings: Eight-eight percent of articles had lead and/or senior authors affiliated with in-country institutions. Linear mixed effect models indicate that COVID-19 cases and case fatality ratios in a country were significantly and positively associated with the number of publications related to COVID-19 and women's well-being, though these relationships were significant only in upper-middle income group countries in stratified analyses. LMIC lead and senior authorship were also significantly and positively associated with our outcome, after adjusting for COVID-19 burden. Interpretation: While the majority of COVID-19 research examining women's well-being in LMICs in the first year and a half of the pandemic included country-affiliated author leadership, there were important gaps in representation. Findings highlight the importance of LMIC-based scholars to build local and gendered research in crises. Funding: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (INV-018007).