Investigating the Role of Gender and Delinquency in Exposure to Violence Among Puerto Rican Youth

Associations Between Mother-Adolescent and Father-Adolescent Relationships and Young Adult Health

IMPORTANCE

Studies linking the quality of parent-adolescent relationships with young adult health outcomes could inform investments to support these complex relationships.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate whether consistently measured, modifiable characteristics of parent-adolescent relationships are associated with young adult health across multiple domains.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS

This cohort study used data from waves I (1994-1995; ages 12-17 years) and IV (2008-2009; ages 24-32 years) of the US National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. Of 20 745 adolescents enrolled in wave I, 15 701 of 19 560 who were eligible completed wave IV (response rate, 80.3%). Data analyses were conducted from February 2019 to November 2020.

EXPOSURES

Parental warmth, parent-adolescent communication, time together, relationship and communication satisfaction, academic expectations, and maternal inductive discipline as reported at wave I by adolescent participants.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES

Wave IV participant-reported self-rated health, depression, stress, optimism, nicotine dependence, substance abuse symptoms (alcohol, cannabis, or other drugs), unintended pregnancy, romantic relationship quality, physical violence, and alcohol-related injury. Separate regression models were run for mother-adolescent and father-adolescent relationships while controlling for age, biological sex, race and ethnicity, parental educational level, family structure, and child maltreatment experiences.

RESULTS

A total of 10 744 participants (mean [SD] age at wave IV, 28.2 [1.8] years; 52.0% female; 67.3% non-Hispanic White) and 8214 participants (mean [SD] age at wave IV, 28.2 [1.8] years; 50.8% female; 71.9% non-Hispanic White) had valid sampling weights and complete data for mother-adolescent and father-adolescent relationship characteristics, respectively. Adolescents who reported higher levels of mother-adolescent warmth (β = 0.11 [95% CI, 0.06-0.15]), communication (β = 0.02 [95% CI, 0.00-0.04]), time together (β = 0.07 [95% CI, 0.05-0.09]), academic expectations (β = 0.05 [95% CI, 0.02-0.08]), relationship or communication satisfaction (β = 0.07 [95% CI, 0.04-0.10]), and inductive discipline (β = 0.03 [95% CI, 0.01-0.05]) reported significantly higher levels of self-rated general health in young adulthood. Adolescents who reported higher levels of father-adolescent warmth (β = 0.07 [95% CI, 0.03-0.11]), communication (β = 0.03 [95% CI, 0.01-0.05]), time together (β = 0.06 [95% CI, 0.03-0.08]), academic expectations (β = 0.04 [95% CI, 0.01-0.06]), and relationship satisfaction (β = 0.07 [95% CI, 0.04-0.10]) also reported significantly higher levels of self-rated general health in young adulthood. Adolescents reporting higher levels of all exposures also reported significantly higher levels of optimism and romantic relationship quality in young adulthood (β coefficient range, 0.02 [95% CI, 0.00-0.04] to 0.24 [95% CI, 0.15-0.34]) and lower levels of stress and depressive symptoms (β coefficient range, -0.07 [95% CI, -0.12 to -0.02] to -0.48 [95% CI, -0.61 to -0.35]). Higher levels of parental warmth, time together, and relationship or communication satisfaction were significantly associated with lower levels of nicotine dependence (odds ratio range, 0.78 [95% CI, 0.72-0.85] to 0.89 [95% CI, 0.81-0.98]) and substance abuse symptoms (incidence rate ratio range, 0.60 [95% CI, 0.50-0.73] to 0.94 [95% CI, 0.89-0.99]), as well as lower odds of unintended pregnancy (odds ratio range, 0.81 [95% CI, 0.74-0.88] to 0.93 [95% CI, 0.86-0.99]). Patterns were less consistent for physical violence and alcohol-related injury. Characteristics of mother-adolescent and father-adolescent relationships were similarly associated with young adult outcomes.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE

The findings of this cohort study suggest that adolescents' positive perceptions of their relationships with their mothers and fathers are associated with a wide range of favorable outcomes in young adulthood. Investments in improving parent-adolescent relationships may have substantial benefits for young adult population health.

Victims, offenders and victim-offender overlaps of knife crime: A social network analysis approach using police records

Knife crime is a source of concern for the police in England and Wales, however little published research exists on this crime type. Who are the offenders who use knives to commit crime, when and why? Who are their victims, and is there a victim-offender overlap? What is the social network formation for people who are exposed to knife crime? Using a multidimensional approach, our aim is to answer these questions about one of England and Wales’ largest jurisdictions: Thames Valley. We first provide a state-of-the-art narrative review of the knife crime literature, followed by an analysis of population-level data on central tendency and dispersion of knife crimes reported to the police (2015–2019), on offences, offenders, victims, victim-offender overlaps and gang-related assaults. Social network analysis was used to explore the formations of offender-victim networks. Our findings show that knife crime represents a small proportion of crime (1.86%) and is associated largely with violence offenses. 16–34 year-old white males are at greatest risk of being the victims, offenders or victim-offenders of knife crime, with similar relative risks between these three categories. Both knife offenders and victims are likely to have a criminal record. Knife crimes are usually not gang-related (less than 20%), and experienced mostly between strangers, with the altercation often a non-retaliatory ‘one-off event’. Even gang-related knife crimes do not follow ‘tit-for-tat’ relationships—except when the individuals involved have extensive offending histories and then are likely to retaliate instantaneously. We conclude that while rare, an incident of knife crime remains predicable, as a substantial ratio of offenders and victims of future knife crime can be found in police records. Prevention strategies should not be focused on gang-related criminals, but on either prolific violent offenders or repeat victims who are known to the police—and therefore more susceptible to knife crime exposure.

Role Differentiation in an Adolescent Victim-Offender Typology: Results From Medellin, Colombia

The present study evaluates adolescent victimization and offending using cross-sectional survey data from 1,475 adolescents living in a disadvantaged Comuna in Medellin, Colombia, while paying particular attention to the ways in which both victimization and violent offending are operationalized. We find that 37% of respondents experienced no lifetime victimization, while 60% experienced vicarious, and 4% personal victimization. When restricting violent offending to behavior involving a weapon, the majority of offenders (81%) also experienced victimization while only 33% of victims were also weapons offenders. Our final analysis seeks to identify theoretical conditions which differentiate roles in a victim-offender typology, a result we determine varies significantly depending on how "violent offending" is measured.

Risk Factors for and Behavioral Consequences of Direct Versus Indirect Exposure to Violence

Research suggests that direct exposure (personal victimization) and indirect exposure (witnessing or hearing about the victimization of a family member, friend, or neighbor) to violence are correlated. However, questions remain about the co-occurrence of these phenomena within individuals. We used data on 1915 youths (with an average age of 12 years at baseline) from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods to examine this issue. Results indicated that youths who tended to be personally victimized were also likely to witness violence; conversely, youths who disproportionately witnessed violence were relatively unlikely to experience personal victimization. In addition, direct and indirect exposures to violence were associated with subsequent adverse outcomes in similar ways. The key distinguishing factor was, rather, the cumulative level of violence (both direct and indirect) to which youths were exposed.

Person-in-context: insights on contextual variation in the victim-offender overlap across schools

The correlation between victimization and offending (i.e., the victim-offender overlap) is one of the most documented empirical findings in delinquency research, leading researchers to investigate potential contingencies in this relationship. A small number of studies have found evidence of contextual variation in the victim-offender overlap, but these studies have produced conflicting results as to whether urban context amplifies or attenuates this relationship. To add clarity to this body of literature, the present study uses a nationally representative sample of adolescents from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) to investigate potential variation in the victim-offender overlap across school context. Results indicate that victimization is positively and significantly related to offending in all school contexts but that the relationship between victimization and offending is stronger in non-urban schools than in urban schools. Results also indicate that negative emotionality may play a key role in unpacking the mechanisms through which context moderates the victim-offender overlap.

Victimization and Violent Offending: An Assessment of the Victim-Offender Overlap Among Native American Adolescents and Young Adults

The purpose of this article is to evaluate the victim-offender overlap among a nationally representative sample of Native American adolescents and young adults. Data for this study were obtained from 338 Native American youth who participated in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) Waves I-IV. Group-based trajectory modeling was used to estimate trajectories of violence and victimization separately. Bivariate tests were used to assess the overlap between victimization and violent trajectory groups. Multinomial regression procedures were used to assess the predictors of victimization, offending, and the overlap category of both victimization and offending. Three trajectory groups were found for violence (nonviolent, escalators, and desistors) and victimization (nonvictim, decreasing victimization, and increasing victimization). We found substantial evidence of an overlap between victimization and offending among Native Americans, as 27.5% of the sample reported both victimization and offending. Those in the overlap group had greater number of risk factors present at baseline. These results suggest that the victim-offender overlap is present in Native American adolescents. Explanations and implications are discussed.