The Norwegian Youth Victimization and Health Study

The negative association between childhood victimization and health is well documented. In addition, being exposed to one type of abuse significantly increases the risk for new exposure both for the same and different types of victimization. 

To date, except from the prevalence of child maltreatment, we have limited knowledge of adolescents’ exposure to different crimes on- and off-line. In addition to child maltreatment, these can be acts of theft, robbery, harassments, youth violence and fraud. 

We are also still in need of more knowledge regarding the association between being a victim of several types of violence, abuse and crimes and associations with health. Moreover, and related to violence and crime exposure, whether adolescents worry about being victimized and if that impacts their choices in daily life, is understudied and highly relevant in order to understand associations with health and well being.

The study will provide new and important knowledge on youth victimization rates in Norway and associations with psychological and somatic health and well-being. 

The main objective of the study is to investigate associations between crime victimization, health and well-being during an age at which exposure to crimes escalate and psychological and somatic health complaints increase. We aim to study victimization in a broad sense, including acts of maltreatment at home and exposure to other crimes outside the family home and online.