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Effects of Violence Victimization on Mental Health of Children and Adolescents: Analysis of Mediating Effects of Self-concept

Article information

Res Community Public Health Nurs. 2013;24(4):407-418
Publication date (electronic) : 2013 December 31
doi : https://doi.org/10.12799/jkachn.2013.24.4.407
Kyung Mi Sung1, Hanju Lee2
1College of Nursing & Institute of Health Sciences, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju, Korea.
2Department of Nursing, Sangmyung University, Cheonan, Korea.
Corresponding author: Lee, Hanju. Department of Nursing, Sangmyung University, 300 Anseo-dong, Dongnam-gu, Cheonan 330-720, Korea. Tel: +82-41-550-5429, Fax: +82-41-550-5545, dalbich@smu.ac.kr
Received 2013 July 03; Accepted 2013 December 15.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to clarify mediating effects of self-concept on mental health of children and adolescents who fell victim to violence.

Methods

A survey was conducted on 4th, 5th, and 6th graders from 2 elementary schools and 1st, 2nd, and 3rd year students from 3 middle schools (n=2,391). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and AMOS.

Results

The mean scores of mental health and self-concept in the subjects were 4.5 and 184.9 respectively. The rate of poor mental health in students who had fallen victim to violence was more than twice as high as that in students who had never experienced it. The self-concept of students who experienced violence had a tendency to decline. Violence experience and self-concept accounted for 47.7%(43.0% for boys and 53.4% for girls) of the changes in mental health. The indirect mediating effects of self-concept were significant.

Conclusion

Based on the findings, the following is suggested. Schools should offer a self-concept improvement program for students with a distorted self-concept caused by falling victim to violence. It could help such adolescents have a positive self image and improve their mental health.

Keywords: Violence; Self-concept; Mental health

Notes

This research was supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (KRF 03-2011-0257).

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Article information Continued

© 2013 Korean Academy of Community Health Nursing

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Funded by : Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology
Award ID : KRF 03-2011-0257

Figure 1-A

Figure 1-A

Path diagram explaining mediating effects of self concept of total students.

Figure 1-B

Figure 1-B

Path diagram explaining mediating effects of self concept of boys.

Figure 1-C

Figure 1-C

Path diagram explaining mediating effects of self concept of girls.

Table 1

Mental Health and Self-concept by General Characteristics (N=2,391)

Table 1

a>b>c: Scheffé test.

†No-response excluded.

Table 2

Comparison of Characteristics by Violence Experience of Participants

Table 2

PI=private institute.

Table 3

Mental Health according to Violence Experience

Table 3

Table 4

Direct, Indirect, and Total Effects in Mental Health Path Model

Table 4

PI=private institute.