Abstract
Objective: The association between violence exposure and health risk behaviours in South African adolescents, and the moderating role of emotion dysregulation were investigated. Design: A multi-ethnic sample of adolescents (N = 925: boy: 47.3%, girl: 52.7%, M age = 16 years, SD = 1.54) completed a survey. Main outcome measures: Violence exposure across different contexts (home-, school-, community-, political victimisation), emotion dysregulation (inability to regulate sadness and anger) and a composite measure of health risk behaviours (smoking, substance use, risky sexual behaviour) were examined. Results: Boys reported more risk behaviours than girls, t (844) = 5.25, p < 0.001. Direct community victimisation was a predictor for boys' risk behaviours, B = 0.22, p < 0.001. Indirect school victimisation and direct community victimisation were predictors for girls' risk behaviours, B's = 0.19, p's < 0.01. Girls reported higher emotion dysregulation than boys, t (748) = -2.95, p < 0.01. Only for girls, emotion dysregulation moderated the associations of indirect home victimisation, B = 16, p < 0.01, and direct community victimisation, B = 15, p < 0.05, with risk behaviours. Conclusion: Interventions may target emotion regulation skills, particularly for girls, to enhance resilience to the negative effects of violence on behaviours.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 144-162 |
Number of pages | 19 |
Journal | Psychology & Health |
Volume | 35 |
Issue number | 2 |
Early online date | 5 Jul 2019 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Feb 2020 |
Keywords
- ABUSE
- ADJUSTMENT
- ALCOHOL-USE
- COMMUNITY VIOLENCE
- GENDER-DIFFERENCES
- HIV RISK
- SELF-CONTROL
- SUBSTANCE USE
- VICTIMIZATION
- Violence exposure
- YOUTH
- adolescents
- emotion dysregulation
- health risk behaviours
- victimisation
Datasets
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Exposure to violence across multiple contexts and health risk behaviours in South African adolescents: the moderating role of emotion dysregulation
Sui, X. (Creator), Massar, K. (Creator), Kessels, L. (Creator), Reddy, P. S. (Creator), Ruiter, R. (Creator) & Sanders-Phillips, K. (Creator), DataverseNL, 5 Jan 2021
DOI: 10.34894/cmokvs, https://doi.org/10.34894%2Fcmokvs
Dataset/Software: Dataset