RESUMO
This study investigated the associations of adolescent aggression, and criminality, to severe hospital-treated assault exposures among young adults (n = 508) with a history of adolescent psychiatric inpatient treatment between 2001-2006. Participants were interviewed during hospitalization using K-SADS-PL to assess psychiatric disorders, and to obtain information on aggressivity. Data on crimes committed were obtained from the Finnish Legal Register Centre, and the treatment episodes for assault exposures from the Finnish National Care Register for Health Care, up to end of 2016. Predictors for severe assault exposure were male sex (OR = 2.1), short temperedness (OR = 2.4), non-violent offending (OR = 2.6), and violent offending (OR = 4.8). These results indicate that the participants most vulnerable to severe assaults were those suffering from a continuum of aggressivity across their lifetime. Our findings can be utilized to identify adolescents at risk of severe assault exposure, and to reduce this risk by focusing on appropriate treatments for these vulnerable adolescents.
RESUMO
OBJECTIVE: Bullying is a common problem among children and adolescents. Previous studies have investigated the associations between involvement in bullying and various psychosocial and mental health outcomes thoroughly. However, only few studies have focused on the association between bullying and exposure to assaults. This study investigated whether the likelihood for severe assault exposure varies among three subgroups of bullying behavior: bullies/bully-victims, victims of bullying, and those not involved in bullying. METHOD: The study population consisted of 508 adolescents (208 boys, 300 girls) aged between 13 and 17 years (mean age 15.5 years), admitted for psychiatric inpatient treatment between the years 2001-2006. Adolescents were interviewed at index hospitalization using semi-structured interview, K-SADS-PL, to assess DSM-IV based adolescent psychiatric disorders, and to obtain information on bullying behavior. Treatment episodes for assault incidents were obtained from the Finnish National Care Register for Health Care covering the entire-life of the study participants up to end of year 2016. RESULTS: 14.4% (n = 73) of the study participants had experienced severe physical or sexual assault leading to hospital treatment during their lifetime. Results of Cox regression analysis showed that girl bullies/bully-victims had nearly threefold increased likelihood for later assault exposure. CONCLUSIONS: Since bullying behavior in childhood and adolescence is a significant predictor for later exposure to severe assault in girls, it should be paid attention to and intervened as early as possible. Moreover, psychosocial risk factors should be taken into account considering those in hospital treatment for severe assault exposure.
