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Unhappy
Teens More Likely
To Carry Weapons and Fight
Excerpt
By Emma Hitt, PhD
NEW YORK (Reuters
Health) - More than one quarter of US teenagers are highly dissatisfied
with their lives, according to the results of a recent survey.
And researchers say this unhappiness puts them at increased risk
for violent and aggressive behavior.
In the survey
of more than 5,000 public high school students in South Carolina,
about 30% of black males and females, 28% of white females and
more than 26% of white males reported low levels of satisfaction
with life overall.
White females
who were dissatisfied were nearly four times more likely than
their satisfied peers to have carried a gun to school in the past
month, and were twice as likely to have fought at school in the
past year, the report indicates.
Similarly,
dissatisfied white males and black males and females were nearly
twice as likely to have carried a weapon in the past month, the
investigators found. Dissatisfied black males were more than three
times more likely to have been involved in a physical fight that
required medical treatment.
The survey
results are published in the current issue of the American Journal
of Health Behavior.
``There are
some very unhappy kids out there, and their lack of life satisfaction
shows up in violent and aggressive behaviors,'' lead study author
Dr. Robert F. Valois, a psychologist at the University of South
Carolina in Columbia, explained in a statement.
It is not
clear whether dissatisfaction with life leads to violent behavior
or if the reverse is true. Teens in general may have trouble managing
stress, making decisions and communicating, which can cause frustration
and raise the risk of behaving aggressively, the study's authors
point out.
``Adolescents
dissatisfied with life might engage in physical fighting as a
result of poor communication skills and the inability to manage
stress, resulting in poor conflict resolution and a physical altercation,''
Valois and colleagues write.
The survey,
conducted for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
also asked teens to rate their levels of satisfaction with their
families, friends, school experiences, living environment and
themselves. The satisfaction scale ranged from ``delighted'' to
``terrible.''
Adolescents
tended to report the most dissatisfaction with school. They were
more satisfied with their family, friends, living environment
and themselves.
SOURCE:
American Journal of Health Behavior 2001;25:353-366.
Reference
Source 89
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