Firearm-related violence is the leading cause of death for adolescents and can have lifelong ramifications, including to one's mental health and well-being. Through a scoping review of existing literature published since 1980, the current study describes nuanced pathways through which exposure to firearm violence (direct or indirect) can…

Objective: To investigate the association between psychological flexibility and physical violence perpetration among a large sample of college students. Participants: We analyzed data from the 2018-2019 national Healthy Minds Study, which included 21,850 undergraduate and graduate student participants at 78 U.S. campuses. Methods: We used…

School connectedness is an important factor in the lives of youth and are a leverage point for optimizing youth's social, emotional, and physical health. This study presents a meta-analysis examining the relationship between school connectedness and four health domains that are prevalent in adolescence, have implications for adult health, and…

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is known to have negative health consequences for victims. For women living with HIV/AIDS, whose health may be compromised, exposure to IPV can be devastating. Yet few (if any) studies have explored the health implications of exposure to IPV among HIV-positive women. We begin to fill this gap by examining the…

Limited emphasis is placed on understanding the gendered pathways that influence mental health, especially long-term cumulative impacts of gender-based inequalities. Exposure to early child marriage (marriage by age 15) may exaggerate exposure to gender-based mental health risk-factors, providing an opportunity to understand the multi-layered…

Background: While there is growing international evidence pointing to the increased risks of crime perpetration and victimisation for some people with an intellectual disability, the overlap between offending and victimisation (the victim-offender overlap) remains unclear. Method: This study utilised a data linkage methodology of 2600 people with…

Rumination about anger experiences prolongs anger arousal and increases the likelihood of aggression. School violence perpetrators have ruminated angrily. Research measures and personal accounts of anger rumination often contain revenge-planning as a subtheme, the relevance of which has received insufficient attention in accounting for aggressive…

Although there is increasing research on the prevalence of students' violence against teachers, very little is known about the way teachers cope with this violence. The main aim of the current study was to investigate teachers' willingness to seek help from school management and from teacher-colleagues for dealing with violence. In addition, the…

Research finds that vicarious strain significantly predicts juvenile delinquency. However, no studies have examined the influence of vicarious health strain on youth behavior despite the fact that when individuals directly experience poor health, there is a greater likelihood of crime and delinquency. Using a sample of youth from the Project on…

This study examined how changes in cumulative peer victimization are associated with depressed mood and suicidality among adolescents over time, as well as whether certain protective factors (e.g., school mattering) moderate these associations. Middle and high school students (N = 2,539) from a small city in the Great Plains responded to five…

Past research has revealed a link between family economic hardship and children's bullying involvement, yet research has not examined the kinds of factors that may mediate this relationship. Our study used data from the National Survey of Children's Health and consisted of a sample of 15,797 children from 12 to 17 years of age who lived with their…

Objective: Empowerment Self-Defense (ESD) is a sexual violence prevention approach backed by rigorous empirical research, yet its availability on college campuses is limited. This manuscript evaluates the feasibility and efficacy of an ESD program embedded within a university counseling center. Methods: Participants completed an 8-session ESD…

Objective: To compare the effect of sexual orientation, history of sexual assault and sense of belonging on depression and suicidality among lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer and questioning (LGBQ) and heterosexual students. Participants: A total of 60,194 students from 60 US campuses who participated in the 2017-2018 Healthy Minds Study. Methods:…

Background: People with learning disabilities are over-represented amongst Sexual Assault Referral Centre service users. This work aims to explore the similarities and differences between service users with and without learning disabilities. Method: Medical notes of 52 service users likely to have a learning disability were compared with 52…

Background: Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) can impair health and other outcomes. To obtain district-level data about the prevalence and impact of ACEs in Chicago Public Schools (CPS), we advocated for CPS to add a short ACE screener to the 2017 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) and analyzed the results. Methods: Responses to the screener…