Boys and girls who witness violence between their parents are very likely to come down with the symptoms of depression, a new study by Michelle Hindin of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Health has found.
Hindin, an assistant professor in the Bloomberg School?s department of population and family health, was joined in the study by Socorro Gultiano, a professor at the University of San Carlos in the Philippines, where the data was collected.
“We found that among young women, the most depressive symptoms came when they recalled that a parent required medical attention following the domestic violence,” said Hindin. “Young men reported the most depressive symptoms had witnessed violence where their father hurt their mother, or where the violence was mutual.”
Hindin and Gultiano used data from 2,051 young men and women ages 17 to 19 collected in the Philippines during the 2002 Cebu Longitudinal Health Survey. The young people were asked, in personal interviews, whether they had witnessed domestic violence or experienced any depressive symptoms during the previous month. Depressive symptoms included headaches, poor digestion, worry, loneliness, trouble sleeping and thoughts about death or committing suicide.
Nearly half of the more than 2,000 teenagers in the study reported witnessing domestic violence. One in 10 of the males and 1 in 5 of the females reported wishing they were dead occasionally or most of the time during the month preceding the survey.
Hindin, citing World Health Organization figures, noted that suicide is the third-leading cause of death among teenagers worldwide. In the Philippines, “young people live in a very different world from their parents. There?s more technology, different jobs. Parents can?t offer advice as they once may have,” she said. Nor do developing nations, such as the Philippines, have in place counselors who may help young people out of depression. The Catholic Church, strong in the Philippines, may make a difference: Hindin cited another study which showed that men who attend church services are less likely to strike their wives than non-churchgoers.
“With about 1 billion young men and women between the ages of 10 and 19 in the developing world,” noted Hindin, “mental health and domestic violence will be increasing public health concerns.”
Hindin?s and Gultiano?s article appeared in the April issue of American Journal of Public Health.
Domestic violence:
In a study of 2,051 young people ages 17 to 19 in the Philippines, nearly half reported witnessing domestic violence between their mother and father. Of that group, 1 in 10 males and 1 in 5 females reported extreme depressive symptoms, including the wish to be dead.
