PHYSICAL ABUSE AMONG HIGH-SCHOOL-STUDENTS - PREVALENCE AND CORRELATION WITH OTHER HEALTH BEHAVIORS

Objective: To better understand the epidemiology of physical abuse amo ng adolescents. Design: School-based survey of students in grades 9 th rough 12. Setting: Twenty-five schools throughout Oregon in 1993. Main Outcome Measures: Prevalence of ever being physically abused, prevale nce of most recent occurrence of physical abuse, and correlation of ph ysical abuse with high-risk health behaviors. Results: Of the 1957 res pondents, 31.5% reported having ever been physically abused, with fema le subjects (34.6%) more likely than male subjects (28.0%) to have eve r 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. Ba sed on multivariate models, students physically abused in the past yea r were more likely than students who had never been physically abused to engage in a variety of high-risk behaviors; these included weapon c arrying (odds ratio, 1.9), suicidal ideation (odds ratio, 2.1), cigare tte smoking (odds ratio, 1.8), cocaine use (odds ratio, 3.2), or multi ple sexual partners (odds ratio, 1.9). Conclusions: Physical abuse, an important problem among high school students, is correlated with many highrisk 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.