MONDAY, Aug. 27, 2001 (HealthDayNews) -- First, the good news: The last decade has brought steep declines in assaults against teen-age boys.
But the news isn't as encouraging for girls.
While assaults against boys dropped 28 percent from 1989-99, assaults against girls fell only 6 percent, a new study says.
In an attempt to figure out why -- and what to do about it -- researchers have sketched a more complete picture of the characteristics of violence against adolescent girls.
Girls are more likely to be assaulted in their home or someone else's home, while boys are more likely to be assaulted in public places, the researchers found.
And while girls had more trauma -- trouble walking or talking or using the toilet -- than boys after being released from hospital, girls were judged to have had less severe injuries when they were admitted to the hospital or treatment center.
"It makes you wonder if we are underestimating how injured the girls really are," says Dr. Harry Moskowitz, lead author of the study and an assistant professor of pediatrics at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City.
The study appears in the August issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.
Moskowitz and his colleagues compared hospital reports for 612 girls and 2,656 boys between 12 and 18 who were seriously injured in an assault, and for 3,487 girls and 17,292 boys who were killed.
The researchers found girls who were assaulted were more likely than boys to have a "pre-existing cognitive or psychological impairment."
Girls were also twice as likely as boys to be stabbed. "Assaults on
adolescent girls tend to be more personal, face-to-face conflicts," Moskowitz says. "There is a more intimate nature to the violence."
However, researchers can't tell from the data used if the violence was perpetrated by a stranger, family member or boyfriend.
Previous studies have shown that much of the violence against teen-age girls comes at the hands of family members, says Patrick Tolan, director of the Institute for Juvenile Research at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
"Girls' injuries are more concentrated in relationship violence, such as dating or family violence. But they are not as likely as boys to be involved in gang or drive-by violence, also called 'acquaintance violence,' " Tolan says.
The researchers aren't sure why the rates of violence have dropped more for boys than girls. It's possible more girls are joining gangs, or that violence-prevention programs have mainly targeted boys, Moskowitz says.
Tolan says what's needed aren't programs specifically designed for girls, but programs that target family and dating violence, which victimizes boys, too.
"We don't need to have different interventions for girls," Tolan says. "Those causes are there for boys, too."
What to Do: To read more about keeping children safe from violence, visit this
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention site, or the National Youth Violence Prevention Resource.
To read about the warning signs of violence against children, see this American Psychological Association site.
