Document Type
Article
Publication Date
5-15-2024
Abstract
Background: Youth exposed to violence are at serious risk for physical, emotional, behavioral, and mental distress. Reliable and prompt detection is necessary to mitigate the psychological consequences of youth violence exposure and trauma. Objective: To describe the initial creation of the VETSY screener and its construct validity and potential use. Methods: From 2014 through 2022 we surveyed 20,532 at-risk youth aged 8–18 years from a diverse metropolitan community participating in the Defending Childhood Initiative (DCI). Youth completed a 17-item self-report screener. An Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was used to determine the reliability and variable grouping for this brief screener. Violence exposure, violent behaviors, and trauma symptoms were assessed. Responses were evaluated based on youth demographics. A potential cutoff score meriting further assessment and intervention was established. Results: Sixty-seven percent of youth reported at least one type of violence exposure within the last year, 55 % reported perpetrating at least one type of violent behavior, and 68 % of youth reported at least one trauma symptom. An Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) with a geomin (oblique) rotation was applied and yielded a three-factor model with high loadings and acceptable fit for violence exposure, violent behaviors, and trauma symptoms. Additional analyses showed the screener structure was the same across sex, race and age groups. Conclusions: The use of the brief screener to quickly and reliably assess violence exposure, violent behaviors, and trauma symptoms among youth provides an opportunity for mental health providers to detect and refer at-risk youth for additional assessment and treatment.
Keywords
abuse, trauma, violence exposure, violent behaviors
Language
English
Publication Title
Child Abuse and Neglect
Grant
2011-MU-MU-K001
Rights
© 2024 The Authors. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/BY-NC-ND/4.0/), which permits non-commercial copying and redistribution of the material in any medium or format, provided the original work is not changed in any way and is properly cited.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Flannery, D. J., Noriega, I., Pittman, S., Singer, M., Kretschmar, J., & Butcher, F. (2024). Violence Exposure and Trauma Screener for Youth (VETSY). Child Abuse & Neglect, 153, 106843.
Manuscript Version
Final Publisher Version