Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #115600

Derek J. Inokuchi, MHS, CHES¹, Min Qi Wang, PhD², and Harry T. Kwon, MPH, CHES². (1) ORC Macro, 11785 Beltsville Dr., Calverton, MD 20705, 301-572-0534, derek.j.inokuchi@orcmacro.com, (2) Department of Public and Community Health, University of Maryland, CHHP, College Park, MD 20742

Violence is a major source of preventable injury among youth. However, acts of violence, such as physical fighting, occur every day in schools. This study examined the association between several behavioral and demographic factors and physical fighting using data (N=15,214) from the 2003 national school-based Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS). The weighted univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed using Survey Data Analysis (SUDAAN) software to adjust the standard error estimate of the multi-stage sampling. The main outcome variable was physical fights (past year) reported as a binary variable. The significant predictors from the univariate model were age, sex, grade, academic grades, tobacco use, multiple sex partners, and multi-drug use. The multivariate model revealed that youth who have multiple sex partners (OR=2.67, CI 2.28-3.12), engage in multiple illicit drug use (OR=3.15, CI 2.73-3.63), use tobacco (OR=1.45, CI 1.28-1.64), and have poor academic grades (OR=4.35, CI 2.78-6.80) were more likely to report physical fighting. In addition, females were less likely (OR=0.47, CI 0.43-0.52) to report being involved in physical fighting. School health professionals should recognize the common youth risk factors that play a role in physical violence and apply this information in developing health education programs targeting all high school grade levels.

Learning Objectives:

• List several behavioral and demographic factors associated with involvement in physical fighting among high school students.
• Contrast the profiles of high school students who reported engaging in physical fighting.
• Identify areas for prevention interventions suggested by these findings.
• Discuss future research directions suggested by these findings.

Keywords: Violence, School Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.