Adolescent health brief
Disaster and Youth Violence: The Experience of School-Attending Youth in New Orleans

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2011.06.005Get rights and content

Abstract

Purpose

Although disaster exposure has been linked with increased child aggression by previous reports, population-level trends are unknown. Pre- to post-Katrina changes in violence-related behaviors among New Orleans high school youth (ages: 12–18 years) were assessed.

Methods

Data from the 2003 (pre-Katrina), 2005 (pre-Katrina), and 2007 (post-Katrina) New Orleans Youth Risk Behavior Survey (n = 5,267) were used. Crude comparisons across years of population characteristics and violence behavior prevalence were made with χ2 analyses. Changes in violence-related behaviors over time were assessed with logistic regression models including indicators for survey years and controls for compositional changes.

Results

Age, gender, and race/ethnicity of school-attending youth were stable across years. In models controlling for demographics, most behaviors were stable over time. Some changes were observed for all groups; dating violence and forced sex increased before the storm, whereas weapon-carrying and missing school as a result of feeling unsafe decreased after the storm. Among African American adolescents only, being threatened at school increased before Katrina.

Conclusions

Results do not support significant population-level increases in violent behavior post-Katrina among school-attending youth in New Orleans. Factors that buffered New Orleans students from post-Katrina violence increases, such as population composition changes or increased supportive services, may explain these findings.

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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  • When it's safer to walk away: Urban, low opportunity emerging adults’ willingness to use bystander behaviors in response to community and dating violence

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    Citation Excerpt :

    The results in this study are drawn from a larger research study that investigated low-opportunity emerging adult’s meaning-making regarding community, community participation, and collective response to violence exposure in New Orleans, Louisiana. Although embeddedness in the rich culture of New Orleans offers many advantages, youth of color in New Orleans endure significant cumulative adversity, including exposure to disproportionately high rates of community violence, poverty, and criminal justice involvement (Madkour et al., 2011). A previous published article developed from the study described here reported that the emerging adults in the study population feel disengaged from community life and frequently self-isolate to protect themselves from community traumas (authors, masked).

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An earlier version of this research was presented at the American Public Health Association Annual Meeting; 2010; Denver, CO.

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