Youth violence perpetration: what protects? What predicts? Findings from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health.
OBJECTIVE
To identify individual, family and community-level risk and protective factors for violence perpetration in a national sample of adolescents.


METHODS
Analysis of two waves of data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. The key outcome variable was Time 2 violence involvement, approximately 1 year after initial data collection, measured by a validated scale of violence perpetration


RESULTS
Controlling for demographic covariates in multivariate regression models, key Time 1 protective factors against Time 2 violence perpetration included measures related to parental expectations, connectedness with parents and other adults, and school, higher grade point average and religiosity. Significant predictive risk factors included a history of violence involvement and violence victimization, weapon carrying, school problems, substance use, health problems, and friend suicide. Probability profiles then assessed the ability of protective factors to offset known risk factors for violence. For both girls and boys there were substantial reductions in the percentage of youth involved in violence in the presence of protective factors, even with significant risk factors present.


CONCLUSIONS
Findings support the utility of a dual strategy of reducing risk factors while enhancing protective factors in the lives of adolescents.
Division of General Pediatrics and Adolescent Health, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455-2002, USA. resni001@umn.edu
Michael D
MD
Resnick
Marjorie
M
Ireland
Iris
I
Borowsky
D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D017678:Sex Distribution; D014481:United States; D014754:Violence / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*