Risk factors of adolescent and young adult trauma victims

Repeated injury, or recidivism, because of intentional or unintentional injury is a growing chronic health problem among urban adolescents and young adults in the United States.

To describe demographic, social, environmental, psychological, and developmental antecedents and risk-taking behaviors, and to examine their relationships to type of trauma and rate of trauma recidivism in adolescent and young adults in an urban trauma center.

One hundred adolescent and young adult trauma victims in an urban trauma center were interviewed, using the Adolescent Risk-Taking Instrument, the Brief Anger/Aggression Questionnaire, and the Trauma Risk Factor Interview Schedule. Bivariate correlation, multiple regression, and discriminant function analysis were used to examine the data.

Of the sample, 89% experienced trauma related to interpersonal violence, including firearm injuries, stab wounds, and blunt trauma. Male gender, unemployment, past arrest, lower levels of spirituality, and higher levels of anger/aggression and thrill-seeking accounted for 25% of the variance in the number of risk-taking behaviors. Factors such as male gender, past arrest, unemployment, having been a crime victim in the past, lower autonomy, use of weapons, fighting, and no psychological counseling distinguished subjects with firearm-related injuries from subjects with other injury sources. Use of alcohol on weekdays, past arrest, and higher education levels were associated with trauma recidivism, explaining 14% of the variance.

Social/environmental and psychological/developmental variables, as well as risk-taking behaviors, are important correlates of trauma and recidivism. These findings suggest the importance of advocacy for social policies conductive to reducing the risks of violence and trauma and risk-reduction interventions as components of posttrauma care.