Background: Little is known about the prevalence of partner violence among adolescents, nor of the factors with which it is associated. The objectives of this study were to document prevalence rates for partner violence among high school students in Cape Town, and to explore factors that are associated with such violence. Method: The sample…

There is a paucity of test-retest reliability data for adolescent self-reports of a wide range of risk behaviours. Grade 8 and 11 Students (N=358) completed a questionnaire on two occasions between 10 and 14 days apart. It included items about use of various substances, violent behaviour, suicidality, and sexuality. Cohen's kappa was almost…

This study aimed to disentangle the influence of depression and self-esteem on suicidal behaviour in adolescence. Grades 8 and 11 students in Cape Town, South Africa (n=939) completed questionnaires assessing suicidal ideation and behaviour, depression, and self-esteem with respect to family, peers, school, sports/athletics, body image and global…

Objective: The aim of this article is twofold: first, to examine the prevalence of being the victim of actual and attempted rape among a large representative sample of Cape Town high school students; and second, to identify the correlates of sexual assault for both boys and girls, including alcohol, tobacco and other drug use, behavioral problems,…

Background: This study investigated associations among adolescents' self-esteem in 6 domains (peers, school, family, sports/athletics, body image and global self-worth) and risk behaviours related to substance use, bullying, suicidality and sexuality. Method: A multistage stratified sampling strategy was used to select a representative sample of…