Physical abuse among high school students. Prevalence and correlation with other health behaviors
D. E. Nelson, G. K. Higginson and J. A. Grant-Worley
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, Hyattsville, Md, USA.
OBJECTIVE: To better understand the epidemiology of physical abuse among
adolescents. DESIGN: School-based survey of students in grades 9 through
12. SETTING: Twenty-five schools throughout Oregon in 1993. MAIN OUTCOME
MEASURES: Prevalence of ever being physically abused, prevalence of most
recent occurrence of physical abuse, and correlation of physical abuse with
high-risk health behaviors. RESULTS: Of the 1957 respondents, 31.5%
reported having ever been physically abused, with female subjects (34.6%)
more likely than male subjects (28.0%) to have ever been abused. Overall,
3.7% of students had been physically abused in the past week, 7.8% in the
past month, and 16.3% in the past year. Based on multivariate models,
students physically abused in the past year were more likely than students
who had never been physically abused to engage in a variety of high-risk
behaviors; these included weapon carrying (odds ratio, 1.9), suicidal
ideation (odds ratio, 2.1), cigarette smoking (odds ratio, 1.8), cocaine
use (odds ratio, 3.2), or multiple sexual partners (odds ratio, 1.9).
CONCLUSIONS: Physical abuse, an important problem among high school
students, is correlated with many high-risk behaviors. Using consistent
definitions, periodic surveys of children about physical abuse and other
types of violent behavior are needed to provide better estimates of the
extent of these problems.
