Violence and psychosocial stress: A 10-year time trend analysis

Abstract

Aim: The aim of this study was to analyze the temporal trend of psychosocial stress and its association between exposure to violence in adolescents.

Methods: This is a cross-sectional study of temporal trends based on three school-based and statewide surveys with regular intervals of five years. The target population consisted of high school students from public schools. A total of 4,207 adolescents were evaluated in 2006, 6,264 in 2011, and 6,002 in 2016. The psychosocial stress indicator was the dependent study variable and was analyzed according to questions: a) Feeling of loneliness; b) Feeling of sadness; c) Difficulty sleeping due to worry; d) Number of close friends; e) Suicide ideation. Exposure variables were exposure to physical violence, involvement in fights and bullying. Logistic and linear regressions were used to verify the temporal trend of psychosocial stress, and to analyze the association between exposure of violence and psychosocial stress.

Results: Regardless of gender, the psychosocial stress score increasing trend between 2006 and 2016. The girls showed a variation in the feeling of loneliness from 18.7% to 22.8%, and suicide ideation increased from 10.4% to 14.2% between 2006 and 2016. All types of violence were associated with greater psychosocial stress for both boys and girls.

Conclusion: Adolescents had a higher prevalence of feelings of loneliness, difficulty sleeping due to worry and suicide ideation during the period from 2006 to 2016, regardless of gender. Exposure to violence is associated with psychosocial stress in both genders, however, the strongest associations occurred in girls.

Keywords: Psychosocial stressor; Time trend, adolescent; Violence.