Abusive histories in youth/young adult students

Abstract

A survey of a college student population indicates that psycical abuse is prevalent in our society. The self-reported data was found to be similar to that occurring in the literature on parent-reported child abuse, documenting that approximately one-third of college students had a history of moderate abuse and 5 to 10 percent had a history of a severe abuse during their developmental years. Through an awareness of its high prevalence, the health care provider will question a history of physical violence when evaluating a student with a medical or psychosocial complaint and appropriately plan a management program inclusive of therapeutic counseling to decrease the effect of the prior or current physical abuse.