Lifetime assessment of poly-victimization in a national sample of children and youth
Abstract
Objective To use a lifetime assessment of victimization experiences to identify children and youth with high cumulative levels of victimization (poly-victims). Also to compare such children to other victims and non-victims, and assess the contribution of cumulative victimization to levels of psychological distress.Design A national sample of 1,467 children aged 2-17 recruited through random digit dialing and assessed via telephone interviews (with caretakers and youth themselves) about a comprehensive range of 33 types of victimization experiences in the previous year and at any time in their lives.Results Nearly 80% of the children and youth reported at least one lifetime victimization. The mean number of lifetime victimizations was 3.7 and the median 2.6. The total number of different lifetime victimizations was highly predictive of symptoms of current distress. The best linear prediction of distress on the basis of cumulative victimization entailed weighting child maltreatment and sexual assault by factors of 4 and 3 respectively compared to other victimizations. We proposed classifying poly-victims as those 10% of children and youth with the highest victimization scores, and calculating different thresholds for children at different ages. Poly-victims designated in this way had significantly more distress, more non-victimization adversities than other youth and were less likely to come from an intact family.Conclusion Lifetime assessment of victimization has value as a means of identifying groups of highly victimized children and youth.Practice implications This paper describes a procedure under which practitioners can assess for a group of children, termed "poly-victims," who have a very high burden of lifetime victimization. These children merit identification because they have high levels of psychological distress, some of the most serious victimization profiles, and a presumed vulnerability for further victimization.
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Different types of victimization often co-occur in the same young person, a pattern called poly-victimization.
“Research on the role of victimization in young people’s SUD outcomes, however, has primarily focused on the effects of single-type victimization (Norman et al., 2012) even though multiple types of victimization are commonly experienced together (i.e., poly-victimization; Davis et al., 2017, 2019a, 2019b; Finkelhor et al., 2009).”
From Influences of victimization and comorbid conditions on latency to illicit drug use among adolescents and young adults (2020) · cites this paper as Finkelhor et al., 2009
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- Authors
- Finkelhor, D., Ormrod, R. K., & Turner, H. A.
- Affiliations
- University of New Hampshire (US)
- ORCID
- Turner, Heather A.
- Venue
- Child Abuse & Neglect
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2009-07
- Volume
- 33
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- 403-411
- ISSN
- 0145-2134 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2120161303
- Cited by
- 657
- References
- 19
- Citations by year
- 2026: 18 · 2025: 21 · 2024: 37 · 2023: 40 · 2022: 39 · 2021: 40 · 2020: 67 · 2019: 48 · 2018: 40 · 2017: 44 · 2016: 59 · 2015: 46 · 2014: 54 · 2013: 41 · 2012: 22
- FWCI
- 22.33
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Child Abuse & Neglect (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- University of New Hampshire Scholars Repository (University of New Hampshire at Manchester) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child Abuse and Trauma
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Bullying, Victimization, and Aggression
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Keywords
- polyvictimization, lifetime victimization, child victimization, youth victimization, psychological distress, child abuse, sexual assault, family intactness
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Child, Child Abuse, Child, Preschool, Female, Humans, Interviews as Topic, Life Change Events, Male, Mental Health, Multiple Trauma, United States, Crime Victims
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