The relationship between community violence and mental health symptoms in adolescents: Protocol for a systematic review

Background: Mental health diseases are responsible for 16% of the global burden of disease in adolescents. Identifying the main determinants of these disorders in this age group can direct public and political efforts aimed at their prevention. Two previous meta-analyses showed a moderate and positive effect between exposure to community violence and mental health symptoms; however, there are still significant gaps to be addressed. Objectives: To evaluate whether adolescents’ exposure to a higher degree of community violence is associated with a higher risk of internalizing mental health symptoms and to investigate whether degrees of community violence events (victimization, witnesses and heard about) is associated with a higher risk of internalizing mental health outcomes (depression, anxiety and postraumatic stress disorder). Methods: A systematic review, research question and inclusion and exclusion criteria were developed according to the PEO format. The population consists of adolescents aged 10 to 24 years, the exposition involves individuals who were exposed to community violence, the comparison is adolescents who were not exposed or who were exposed to community violence to a smaller degree, and the outcome consists of internalizing mental health symptoms. Selection, extraction and quality assessment are being performed independently by two researchers. Results: A narrative synthesis will be presented. If possible, a meta-analysis will be performed with subgroup analyses of age, sex, degree of community violence and race. Publication bias will be assessed using funnel plots. This protocol has been registered in the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO) - CRD 42019124740.

An Evaluation of Psychological Reports Considered in the Amnesty Process of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission

An evaluation of the summary and individual psychological reports on five perpetrators of human rights violations were made. The reports overwhelmingly focused on postraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) even where the diagnosis was clearly not warranted and tried to dissuade the court from trying to elicit full disclosure of human rights violations, arguing that it would have detrimental effects on the perpetrators. In this most public work of psychologists greater oversight over expert consultations was urged.