VIOLENCE | Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth (ARACY) releases new report on preventing youth violence
(2009-11-18) As part of its 'Preventing Youth Violence' initiative ARACY has released a new report called Violent and antisocial behaviours among adolescents in Australian communities: An analysis of risk and protective factors. This report 'presents an analysis of factors associated with violent and antisocial behaviours among young Australians aged 10–14 years'.
The factors that increase or reduce the likelihood of young people engaging in violence are the focus of the report. One of its key findings is that programs aimed at preventing youth violence need to start much earlier and last longer than they have previously. The report is specifically aimed at young people aged 10–14 because this is the period when major changes in the brain's development allow for early intervention strategies to be most effective.
The link between alcohol consumption and violence is confirmed in the report, which found that as many as one in five Year 6 boys had consumed alcohol in the previous month.
Professor Fiona Stanley AC, ARACY Board Chair, said the report sounded a warning about the long-term health and social problems that many young people could face. 'We already know that young people are more susceptible to the effects of alcohol because of major changes occurring in the wiring of their brains during this critical period of development. We also know that the younger children start drinking, the more likely they are to have serious alcohol problems by the time they reach young adulthood', Professor Stanley said.
She went on to say that parents and teachers should do all they could to cut down on the use of alcohol by those in the 10–14 age group.
The report is the first stage of the ARACY Preventing Youth Violence Project. ARACY is now convening an expert panel that will oversee the production of a national discussion paper and roundtable.
To download a copy of the report go to http://www.aracy.org.au/cmsdocuments/violent_and_antisocial_behaviours.pdf
Source: ARACY newsletter, 11 November 2009, and media release http://www.aracy.org.au/index.cfm?pageName=preventing_youth_violence.