Adolescent health briefDisaster and Youth Violence: The Experience of School-Attending Youth in New Orleans
Section snippets
Data
Data from the New Orleans Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) were used. These biennial surveys examine the prevalence of health behaviors among high school-attending youth (ages: 12–18 years). In New Orleans, students completed anonymous scantron surveys in classrooms that were randomly selected within regular public high schools in spring 2003 (pre-Katrina, 61% overall response rate [ORR]), spring 2005 (pre-Katrina, 60% ORR), and fall 2007 (post-Katrina, 88% ORR). The 2003 data were included to
Results
Table 1 presents descriptive and bivariate results. Across years, the population was about 50% female and 90% African American, and average age of the population was 16 years. Significant differences across years were only observed in missing school as a result of feeling unsafe (2003: 16.3%; 2005: 19.3%; 2007: 9.1%) and dating violence (2003: 13.1%; 2005: 20.6%; 2007: 22.2%).
Multivariable models (Table 2) extended bivariate findings and identified whether significant changes occurred pre- or
Discussion
Results do not support a population-level surge in violence-related behaviors post-Katrina among high school youth in New Orleans. Observed significant increases happened pre-Katrina; other violence-related behaviors significantly decreased post-Katrina. This contrasts with previous etiologic studies [5], [6], one of which examined externalizing behaviors among children referred to mental health services, and the other which examined reactive aggression among a selective sample of high school
Acknowledgments
Dr. Madkour's time on this project was supported in part by HRSA MCHB T76MC04927.
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An earlier version of this research was presented at the American Public Health Association Annual Meeting; 2010; Denver, CO.