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Somatic Symptoms Among US Adolescent Females: Associations with Sexual and Physical Violence Exposure

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Abstract

The objective of this study is to examine the association between physical and sexual violence exposure and somatic symptoms among female adolescents. We studied a nationally representative sample of 8,531 females, aged 11–21 years, who participated in the 1994–1995 Wave I of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). Female adolescents were asked how often they had experienced 16 specific somatic symptoms during the past 12 months. Two summary categorical measures were constructed based on tertiles of the distributions for the entire female sample: (a) total number of different types of symptoms experienced, and (b) number of frequent (once a week or more often) different symptoms experienced. Groups were mutually exclusive. We examined associations between adolescents’ violence exposure and somatic symptoms using multinomial logistic regression analyses. About 5 % of adolescent females reported both sexual and non-sexual violence, 3 % reported sexual violence only, 36 % reported non-sexual violence only, and 57 % reported no violence. Adolescents who experienced both sexual and non-sexual violence were the most likely to report many different symptoms and to experience very frequent or chronic symptoms. Likelihood of high symptomatology was next highest among adolescents who experienced sexual violence only, followed by females who experienced non-sexual violence only. Findings support an exposure–response association between violence exposure and somatic symptoms, suggesting that symptoms can be markers of victimization. Treating symptoms alone, without addressing the potential violence experienced, may not adequately improve adolescents’ somatic complaints and well-being.

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Notes

  1. We examined symptom variables as counts and also applied other cutpoints; findings were consistent across variable formats.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development [Grants R01HD57046 and T32 HD07168] and a training grant from the Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration (T76MC00004). This research uses data from Add Health, a program Project directed by Kathleen Mullan Harris and designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and funded by Grant P01-HD31921 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, with cooperative funding from 23 other federal agencies and foundations. Special acknowledgment is due Ronald R. Rindfuss and Barbara Entwisle for assistance in the original design. Information on how to obtain the Add Health data files is available on the Add Health website (http://www.cpc.unc.edu/addhealth). No direct support was received from Grant P01-HD31921 for this analysis. Use of this acknowledgment requires no further permission from the persons named.

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Correspondence to Carolyn Tucker Halpern.

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Halpern, C.T., Tucker, C.M., Bengtson, A. et al. Somatic Symptoms Among US Adolescent Females: Associations with Sexual and Physical Violence Exposure. Matern Child Health J 17, 1951–1960 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-013-1221-1

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