Victimization and polyvictimization among Spanish youth protected by the child welfare system

Objective: To analyze lifetime and past-year victimization and polyvictimization among adolescents in residential care from a southwestern European country. Also, age and gender differences in victimization profiles were examined. Method: A sample of 129 youths aged 12-17 years old (M = 14.58, SD = 1.62; 65 females) were recruited from 18 residential facilities in Spain. The 36-item interview version of the juvenile Victimization Questionnaire (Finkelhor, Hamby, Ormrod, & Turner, 2005) was used to assess interpersonal victimization experiences. Results: All adolescents reported at least one type of victimization during lifetime, and 85.3% did so for the past year. The most common lifetime and past-year victimization experiences were witnessing and indirect victimization (90.7% and 51.9%, respectively) and conventional crime (88.4% and 66.7%, respectively). Females were more likely to report lifetime and past-year witnessing of family violence (OR = 337 and OR = 851, respectively) and caregiver victimization (OR = 2.98 and OR = 5.92, respectively), and past-year sexual victimization with physical contact (OR = 436 and OR = 3.40, respectively) than were males. Regarding polyvictimization thresholds, 53.1% and 26.5% of protected adolescents were lifetime and past-year polyvictims, respectively, and they suffered victimizations from 3 to 6 different domains in both time frames. Conclusions: Victimization and polyvictimization should be continuously assessed in the child welfare system in order to prevent future exposure to violence among already vulnerable adolescents. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.