In this research, we examined the frequency of exposure to violence in the home, school and neighborhood among middle school students as well as its related psychiatric symptoms. A total of 1,345 students from 5 middle schools in Seoul participated in this study: 670 were male, 675 were female. We administered self-reported questionaires including discriptions of exposure to violence and a trauma symptom checklist(TSC)(Singer 1995). 1) The total frequency of exposure to any type of violence was 45% in our sample. The frequency of girls' being hit in home was 22.8%, which was significantly higher than it was for boys(p<0.001). The frequency of boys' exposure to violence in school and in the neighborhood was 22.1% and 10.1% respectively, which was higher than it was for girls(p<0.005). 2) In factor analysis of TSC, 4 factors were identified. TSC including depression-anxity, PTSD, dissociation and anger was correlated with violence exposure variables. Multiple regression analysis revealed that TSC is related with violence victimization in life(R2=0.18), sexual assault(R2=0.12), recent victimization in the home(R2=0.08), recent witness to violencein the home(R2=0.07), recent victimization in school(R2=0.08) and all violence exposures(R2=0.29). 3) Among the demographic variables, sex, parental alcohol problem and student alcohol-smoking-drug problems influenced the TSC(p<0.005). TSC could be result of witness to violence as well violence victimization. And the risk factors for violence-related psychiatric symptoms were mainly seen in females, who have parents with alcohol problems or who themselves have alcohol-substance problems. So intervention programs for violence victims should be focused on the these high risk group.
Adolescent ; Anger ; Crime Victims ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Parents ; Residence Characteristics ; Risk Factors ; Seoul ; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic ; Violence*

In 2008, the Korean Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) initiated Korean Community Health Survey (KCHS), the first nationwide survey to provide data that could be used to plan, implement, monitor and evaluate community health promotion and disease prevention program. This community-based cross-sectional survey has been conducted by 253 community health centers, 36 community universities and 1,500 interviewers. The KCHS standardized questionnaire is developed jointly by KCDC staff, a working group of health indicators standardization subcommittee and 16 metropolitan cities and provinces with 253 regional sites. The KCHS was administered by trained interviewers and the quality control of KCHS was improved by introduction of computer-assisted personal interview in 2010. The questionnaire was reviewed annually so that revised and/or new questions could be added based on public health policy. The additional questions included the fixed and rotating cores, emerging issues and optional modules. The standardized questionnaire of KCHS covered a wide variety of health topics, which could be used to assess the prevalence of personal health behaviors related to causes of disease. The KCHS data allows that the differences of health issues among provinces can be directly compared. Furthermore, the provinces can use these data for their own cost-effective health interventions to improve health promotion and disease prevention.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S.) ; Community Health Centers ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Health Behavior ; Health Promotion ; Health Surveys ; Humans ; Organothiophosphorus Compounds ; Prevalence ; Public Health ; Quality Control ; Surveys and Questionnaires