This time, as part of the picture of junior high school students in Japan today that emerges from the results of the ISRD4 Japan survey, we will introduce children's experiences of victimization and adversity, including "abuse," which is one of the focuses of this project.
Experience of victimization
The ISRD4 asks children about the various crimes they have experienced as victims. Let's look at four of these crimes over their lifetime: blackmail/robbery, assault/injury, theft, and hate crime (*1).
The survey revealed that the majority of students, both male and female, responded that they had never been victims of "extortion/robbery," "assault," or "hate crime" in their lifetime. On the other hand, when it came to "theft," which is non-violent theft, a certain number of students responded that they had been victims at least once, with approximately one in six boys and one in ten girls responding that they had been victims in their lifetime.
"ISRD Project Report 1As introduced in the previous article, there are many "hidden figures" of crime and delinquency that do not appear in official statistics, making it difficult to measure the actual situation. In this context, "crime victimization surveys" are one of the methods considered useful for understanding the actual situation, along with "self-reporting methods" in which students report their past experiences. There are only a limited number of victimization surveys conducted targeting junior high school students, such as this one, and the results obtained from the ISRD4 Japan survey can be said to be valuable knowledge.
(*1) The question for hate crimes is, "Have you ever been severely threatened or subjected to violence by someone because of your race, ethnic background, nationality, religion, gender identity, or sexual orientation?"
Abuse/adversity experience
ISRD4 also includes children's experiences of adversity, including "abuse," which is one of the focuses of this project. Below, we will look at the trends between boys and girls in items related to experiences of adversity.
With the exception of "Death of father or mother," more than 5% of both male and female students answered that they had experienced all of the items. In particular, "intense arguments between parents" and "mild violence from parents (*2)" were answered by one in three to four students overall, and it was found that girls were more likely to answer that they had experienced both.
(*2) The question for mild parental violence is, "Have you ever been hit, slapped, or pushed by your mother or father (or stepmother or stepfather)? (This includes cases where this was done as punishment.)" The question for severe parental violence is, "Have you ever been hit with an object, punched hard, kicked, or severely hurt by your mother or father (or stepmother or stepfather)? (This includes cases where this was done as punishment.)"
Adverse experiences that children have at home, such as being abused, losing or separating from a parent, or parental alcohol problems or fights, are known as "ACE (adverse childhood experiences)," and it has been shown in various places that having a high number of these experiences (ACE score) puts students at a disadvantage in the future (e.g., Mitani 2023).
So, this time, we will look at the correlation between "motivation to go to university" and "future prospects" (*3) included in ISRD4 and the above ACE score (*4). First, let's look at the answers by gender to the questions about motivation to go to university and future prospects.
(*3) In this analysis, students who answered "I strongly agree" and "I agree" to both questions were considered to have "the desire to go to university" and "a stable outlook for the future," respectively.
(*4) The number of responses of “Yes” to the eight items on adverse experiences above was added together to calculate the “ACE score.”
Regarding the desire to go to university, more than half of both men and women answered "I strongly agree" or "I agree," with a slightly higher proportion of men. Regarding stable prospects for the future, there was almost no gender difference in the trend, with more than half of the respondents overall answering "I strongly agree" or "I agree."
Next, let's look at the correlation between ACE scores and these.
It was found that students with higher ACE scores tended to report that they had no desire to go to university and that they had no stable prospects for the future. These are responses based on the child's current self-assessment, but it has been found that ACE experiences are closely related to life events such as continuing on to higher education and finding employment, and can also have a negative impact on future economic situations.
Adversity experiences, including abuse, can lead to poverty and inequality, and are one of the issues surrounding children that need to be resolved in the future.
References
Haruyo Mitani, 2023, "ACE Survivors: People Suffering from Childhood Adversity", Chikuma Shobo.
| NEXT Next time, we will focus on the use of computers, smartphones, and social media, and the associated "cybercrime." |
