Process mining the trajectories for adolescent-to-mother violence from longitudinal police and health service data

The aim was to discover longitudinal trajectories and patterns of events preceding adolescent-to-mother family violence in a geographic locale in Australia.

This was a retrospective case series.

Routinely collected administrative data were sourced and linked from police and health service electronic records for adolescents born between 1994 and 2006 who had been issued a legal action for a family violence-related offence (n = 775). A time-stamped log of events from birth (where available) was created. Process mining was employed to discover dominant events and trajectories in the log from birth until adolescents' first recorded offence against their mother.

Most adolescents in the case series offended against mothers (63%, n = 486). Trajectory analysis confirmed dominant early childhood events were repeated exposure to parental intimate partner violence (P-IPV), parental drug and/or alcohol use and neglect. During early adolescence, pathways towards adolescent-to-mother violence involved other offending, drug and/or alcohol use and mental health service contact.

The trajectories evidenced provide a complex picture of the emergence of adolescent-to-mother violence. From an early intervention perspective, it was found that many children and mothers were identifiable from police records in early childhood, at an average age of 35 months. Responses to adolescent family violence need to acknowledge the impact of childhood trauma and emerging mental health problems, along with strategies to mitigate the effect of P-IPV on mother-to-child relationships.

This is the first large-scale study to specifically examine trajectories from birth for adolescents who engage in violence towards mothers. The findings have important implications for the design and delivery of early intervention childhood services and interagency collaboration in nursing and midwifery services. In early adolescence, contact with mental health services represents an opportunity for screening and support interventions. This is an important preventive timepoint for family violence, adolescent drug and alcohol use and other offences.