Examining Direct and Indirect Pathways between Adolescent Extra-Familial Criminal Victimization and Adult Mental Health

Abstract

This study examines the association between extra-familial criminal victimizations in adolescence and two mental health outcomes—depressive symptomology and suicide ideation—reported in adulthood (mean age\u2009=\u200928). Guided by the adverse childhood experiences and the stress process model, this association is explored while considering other salient predictors of adult mental health, including childhood abuse, negative life events experienced in adolescence and adult stressors including recent criminal victimization and economic strain. Utilizing Wave I (1994–1995) and IV (2008–2009) data from the restricted version of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescents to Adult Health, mediation analyses reveal that adolescent extra-familial victimization experiences are largely associated with adult mental health outcomes indirectly, via adolescent mental health. These results suggest that while such victimization experiences are important factors in understanding adult mental health and should be considered when examining the enduring consequences of adverse childhood experiences, this particular association is complex, nuanced, and only one ingredient in a mixture of an array of adverse experiences that affect adult mental health.