The intersection of adolescent depression and peer violence: baseline results from a randomized controlled trial of 1752 youth in Pakistan

Abstract

Background Depression and peer violence are global issues impacting youth. We are presenting baseline data as part of a cluster randomized control trial underway, on adolescent depression, and associated factors among boys and girls in schools. Method Cluster randomized control trial is underway for measuring the effectiveness of school‐based play intervention program of the NGO Right to Play, in a sample of 1752 grade 6 youth in 40 public schools of Hyderabad, Pakistan. Students responded to Child Depression Inventory (CDI‐2), the Peer Victimization Scale (PVS), the Peer Perpetration Scale (PPS), and investigator‐driven seven‐item School Performance Scale. Results We report baseline assessments to examine the prevalence of depressive symptoms, and associated occurrence of peer perpetration and victimization. Boys report significantly more depressive symptoms as well as perpetration and victimization compared to girls (p ≤ .0001). Our analysis indicates that among boys, depression was found associated with greater age, food insecurity, poorer school performance and working for money, as well as being beaten at home and witnessing beating of their mother by their father or other relatives. Among girls, depression was associated with a younger age, greater food insecurity and poorer school performance. Depression was also associated with a great likelihood of engagement in peer violence, experience of punishment at home, and witnessing their father fighting with other men or beating their mother. Conclusions Engagement in violent behaviors, exposure to violent acts and poverty surfaces as detrimental to mental health in youth age groups, suggesting strong measures to address youth violence, and poverty reduction for positive mental health outcomes in school age children.

The intersection of school corporal punishment and associated factors: Baseline results from a randomized controlled trial in Pakistan

“…Research from Egypt shows that anti-social behavior of youth is punished by parents through corporal punishment and this same behavior is punished by teachers [ 28 ]. Aggressions is closely associated with depression in adolescents [ 29 ], and we have shown elsewhere that corporal punishment at home is strongly associated with depression, as is peer violence engagement in girls [ 30 ], and our structural model shows a pathway from corporal punishment at home to corporal punishment at school mediated by engagement in peer violence. This indicates that primary prevention of child aggression should involve stopping corporal punishment at home and this would reduce corporal punishment in school.…”

Comunicación con los padres, malestar psicológico y actitud hacia la autoridad en adolescentes mexicanos: su influencia en la victimización escolar

“…El análisis multigrupo muestra algunas interesantes diferencias entre chicas y chicos. La mayor relación entre la victimización y victimización física para los chicos coincide con los resultados obtenidos en otros trabajos respecto al predominio de la violencia física en los chicos (Arsenault, 2018;Asad et al, 2017;Espelage, 2016). La relación negativa entre comunicación con los padres-malestar psicológico es mayor para las chicas, posiblemente por diferencias culturales, en la medida en que en México y Latinoamérica en las chicas se acentúa la importancia de los lazos afectivos familiares y de la aprobación de los mayores, lo que aumenta el impacto psicoemocional (malestar) cuando predomina la comunicación ofensiva, mientras que en los chicos se promueve la independencia y el individualismo, restando importancia a la sensibilidad afectiva y la obediencia (Langhinrichsen-Rohling, Friend y Powell, 2009).…”

“…Puede ir desde leve, en problemas subclínicos, hasta severo, como criterio diagnóstico de trastornos de salud mental (Arvidsdotter, Marklund, Kylen, Taft y Ekman, 2016;Drapeau, Marchand, y Forest, 2014, Organización Mundial de la Salud, 2018. En varios estudios se han constatado relaciones entre la ansiedad, la depresión y la victimización (Hamilton, Potter, Olino, Abramson, Heimberg y Alloy, 2016; Hong et al, 2015) pero su presencia también en los perpetradores sugiere un proceso común para ambos roles, relacionado con la violencia intrafamiliar (Asad et al, 2017;Hong et al, 2012;Wang y Kenny, 2014). En estos modelos explicativos se proponen relaciones causales del ambiente familiar negativo en el malestar que sería, a su vez, un mediador de la victimización.…”

Children's peer violence perpetration and victimization: Prevalence and associated factors among school children in Afghanistan

“…The negative effects of peer violence on children’s health and psychological wellbeing have been widely documented. Experience of peer violence victimization has been linked to children’s physical health problems and psychosomatic symptoms, such as headache, fatigue, stomach pain and dizziness [ 16 , 17 ], and psychological problems including poor self-esteem, feelings of depression, social anxiety, sleep disturbance, lower self-efficacy, loneliness, hopelessness and suicidal ideation [ 8 , 16 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 ]. Peer violence may also impact negatively on children’s school performance, with some studies suggesting that experience of victimization or perpetration of peer violence are associated with poor academic performance or attendance [ 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 ].…”