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Peer victimization, also referred to as bullying victimization, is associated with deleterious mental health outcomes including depression and suicidality. However, most of the bullying literature in the USA is centered around the experiences of non-Latinx White and African American adolescents. To center Latinx experiences, this cross-sectional study includes a sample of Latinx students from 19 Colorado high schools (n = 2554). School-level ethnic peer representation (proportion of Latinx peers) and individual student's willingness to seek help were examined independently as moderators between bullying victimization and mental health outcomes (depression and suicidality) separately by gender. Results indicated that Latinx youth who experienced peer victimization also reported higher symptoms of depression and suicidality. A greater willingness to seek help was associated with less symptoms of depression and suicidality among young Latinx youth, while school-level ethnic peer representation was only associated with lower symptoms of depression for Latinx adolescent females. Among Latinx youth who were victimized, a greater willingness to seek help was protective for symptoms of depression and suicidality. Results suggest that school-based programs for bullying prevention and mental health promotion need to examine culturally specific protective factors to reduce victimization and promote help-seeking norms among Latinx youth.

Adolescent sexual violence (SV), which includes non-contact verbal sexual harassment (SH) and forced sexual contact (FSC), is a significant public health problem with long-term impacts on health and well-being. Understanding how sports participation is linked to SV can inform prevention efforts; however, the current literature is unclear about the nature of this association. Using data from 20 high schools, we investigate whether athletes in certain sports are at higher risk of SH and FSC perpetration than either other athletes or sports non-participants, and whether the risk is moderated by gender, dismissiveness of SV, or substance use intentions. We also utilize social network data to explore the role of relationships with peers and trusted adults to attenuate SH and FSC perpetration. Second, we incorporate characteristics of friends to further examine the role and composition of peer groups in the association between sports participation and perpetration of SH and FSC. Findings revealed a bivariate association between sport contact level and SH perpetration, but not FSC, and the association disappeared after adjusting for other covariates. Most prominently, dismissiveness of SV, intentions to use substances, and prior perpetration had the strongest association with perpetration regardless of sport contact level. Results also provided some support for the influence of peers and trusted adults in the sports context. Notably, the percentage of friends who perpetrated FSC and the percentage of friends who play a low-contact sport were positively associated with FSC perpetration, and the percentage of friends who play a high-contact sport was positively associated with SH perpetration. The paper concludes with a discussion of the sports context as an important venue for comprehensive prevention efforts, including a focus on changing norms around adolescent SV and substance use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are consistently high rates of sexual victimization and substance misuse among youth in the United States. Although there is a known relation between sexual victimization and substance use, there is a gap in the research regarding the magnitude and temporality of these associations. This study examined whether latent classes of sexual victimization and help-seeking attitudes longitudinally predict intentions of future substance misuse 7–10 months later. Students from nine Colorado high schools (N = 533; M = age 16 years) completed surveys across two consecutive school semesters. Latent class analysis was used to identify classes of students who experienced at least one form of sexual victimization (e.g., sexual harassment, unwanted sexual contact) according to 13 sexual victimization items, and level of positive attitudes regarding help-seeking for sexual victimization. Classes were compared on demographic characteristics and for distal outcomes of likelihood of future substance misuse (cigarettes, alcohol, cannabis, prescription drugs, and electronic vaping products) using latent class regression, controlling for previous intentions to use. At Time 1, four classes of sexual victimization were identified with two main classes for comparison: low odds of experiencing sexual victimization (60.1% of sample) and high odds of endorsing all forms of sexual victimization (7.7% of sample). The high sexual victimization class had higher proportions of male and transgender students, compared to other classes. At Time 2 (7–10 months later), students in the high sexual victimization class reported a significantly greater likelihood of future cigarette (p =.017) and prescription drug misuse (p =.007) when compared to the low sexual victimization class. There was no evidence that having higher positive attitudes towards help-seeking resulted in lower intentions to use substances in the future. These findings highlight that addressing sexual violence in prevention programming may have crossover effects of reducing substance misuse and other forms of violence among youth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]