Adolescent Victimization and Early-Adult Psychopathology: Approaching Causal Inference Using a Longitudinal Twin Study to Rule Out Noncausal Explanations.
Adolescence is the peak age for both victimization and mental disorder onset. Previous research has reported associations between victimization exposure and many psychiatric conditions. However, causality remains controversial. Within the Environmental Risk Longitudinal Twin Study, we tested whether seven types of adolescent victimization increased risk of multiple psychiatric conditions and approached causal inference by systematically ruling out noncausal explanations. Longitudinal within-individual analyses showed that victimization was followed by increased mental health problems over a childhood baseline of emotional/behavioral problems. Discordant-twin analyses showed that victimization increased risk of mental health problems independent of family background and genetic risk. Both childhood and adolescent victimization made unique contributions to risk. Victimization predicted heightened generalized liability (the "p factor") to multiple psychiatric spectra, including internalizing, externalizing, and thought disorders. Results recommend violence reduction and identification and treatment of adolescent victims to reduce psychiatric burden.
Duke Scholars
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- 5205 Social and personality psychology
- 5203 Clinical and health psychology
- 5201 Applied and developmental psychology
- 1701 Psychology
Citation
Published In
DOI
EISSN
ISSN
Publication Date
Volume
Issue
Start / End Page
Related Subject Headings
- 5205 Social and personality psychology
- 5203 Clinical and health psychology
- 5201 Applied and developmental psychology
- 1701 Psychology