Adolescent peer aggression and its association with mental health and substance use in an Australian cohort

Sophie E Moore; Rosana E Norman; Peter D Sly; Andrew J O Whitehouse; Stephen R Zubrick; James Scott

doi:10.1016/j.adolescence.2013.10.006

Adolescent peer aggression and its association with mental health and substance use in an Australian cohort

J Adolesc. 2014 Jan;37(1):11-21. doi: 10.1016/j.adolescence.2013.10.006. Epub 2013 Nov 12.

Authors

Sophie E Moore¹, Rosana E Norman², Peter D Sly¹, Andrew J O Whitehouse³, Stephen R Zubrick⁴, James Scott⁵

Affiliations

¹ Children's Health and Environment Program, Queensland Children's Medical Research Institute, University of Queensland, Royal Children's Hospital, Herston, QLD, 4029, Australia.
² Children's Health and Environment Program, Queensland Children's Medical Research Institute, University of Queensland, Royal Children's Hospital, Herston, QLD, 4029, Australia; School of Population Health, University of Queensland, Herston, QLD, 4006, Australia.
³ Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, Centre for Child Health Research, University of Western Australia, Subiaco, WA, 6008, Australia; School of Psychology, University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA, 6009, Australia.
⁴ Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, Centre for Child Health Research, University of Western Australia, Subiaco, WA, 6008, Australia.
⁵ Metro North Mental Health, Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital, Herston, QLD, 4029, Australia; The University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research, Herston, QLD, 4029, Australia. Electronic address: James_g_scott@health.qld.gov.au.

PMID: 24331300
DOI: 10.1016/j.adolescence.2013.10.006

Abstract

Prospective longitudinal birth cohort data was used to examine the association between peer aggression at 14 years and mental health and substance use at 17 years. A sample of 1590 participants from the Western Australian Pregnancy Cohort (Raine) study were divided into mutually exclusive categories (victims, perpetrators, victim-perpetrators and uninvolved). Involvement in any type of peer aggression as a victim (10.1%), perpetrator (21.4%), or a victim-perpetrator (8.7%) was reported by 40.2% of participants. After adjusting for confounding factors, those who were a victim of peer aggression had increased odds of later depression and internalising symptoms whilst perpetrators of peer aggression were found to be at increased risk of depression and harmful alcohol use. Victim-perpetrators of peer aggression were more likely to have externalising behaviours at 17 years. These results show an independent temporal relationship between peer aggression and later mental health and substance use problems in adolescence.

Keywords: Adolescent; BDI-Y; Beck Depression Inventory for Youth; Bullying; CBCL; CI; Mental health; OR; Peer aggression; Raine study; Substance use; Western Australian Pregnancy Cohort (Raine) study; YSR; Youth Self Report; child behaviour checklist; confidence interval; odds ratio.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Aggression / psychology*
Australia / epidemiology
Depression / epidemiology*
Female
Humans
Male
Peer Group
Sex Factors
Substance-Related Disorders / epidemiology
Substance-Related Disorders / psychology*