Physical abuse among high school students. Prevalence and correlation with other health behaviors.

OBJECTIVE

To better understand the epidemiology of physical abuse among adolescents.

DESIGN

School-based survey of students in grades 9 through 12.

SETTING

Twenty-five schools throughout Oregon in 1993.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Prevalence of ever being physically abused, prevalence of most recent occurrence of physical abuse, and correlation of physical abuse with high-risk health behaviors.

RESULTS

Of the 1957 respondents, 31.5% reported having ever been physically abused, with female subjects (34.6%) more likely than male subjects (28.0%) to have ever been abused. Overall, 3.7% of students had been physically abused in the past week, 7.8% in the past month, and 16.3% in the past year. Based on multivariate models, students physically abused in the past year were more likely than students who had never been physically abused to engage in a variety of high-risk behaviors; these included weapon carrying (odds ratio, 1.9), suicidal ideation (odds ratio, 2.1), cigarette smoking (odds ratio, 1.8), cocaine use (odds ratio, 3.2), or multiple sexual partners (odds ratio, 1.9).

CONCLUSIONS

Physical abuse, an important problem among high school students, is correlated with many high-risk behaviors. Using consistent definitions, periodic surveys of children about physical abuse and other types of violent behavior are needed to provide better estimates of the extent of these problems.