Differential salience of cumulative exposure to violence on depressive symptoms by age

Abstract

Research has identified violence exposure as a risk factor for depression, but there remain gaps in the understanding of this relationship. Knowing how this relationship may vary based on when in the life-course that violence exposure occurs is one area in need of greater attention. Also, being exposed to multiple types of violence across multiple domains has not been examined from a life-course perspective. Such an examination could demonstrate whether accumulation of violence exposure is relevant for predicting depressive symptoms that may not be as subject to measurement error as other forms. The Pathways to Desistance data were used in the analyses. Mixed effects poisson models were used to estimate relationships with repeated measures nested within individual participants. Results indicated that greater variety of exposure to violence predicted increased depression severity scores. This relationship increased in salience linearly as individuals got older. This result indicates that individuals in emerging adulthood may be particularly susceptible to depression following more exposures to violence. Treatment for depression may be more effective if targeting survivors of violence during this period of the life-course, particularly if violence exposure profiles are highly varied across multiple domains.