Status social subjetivo na adolescência e crime violento na transição para a idade adulta: um estudo de coorte de nascimentos brasileiro

Abstract

Interpersonal violence is the leading cause of death among young people in Brazil, where poverty and inequality are considered major conditions associated with increased levels of violence. Recent research has begun to explore the potential role of perceived socioeconomic position—beyond objective conditions—in contributing to violent behavior. This study investigated the association between subjective social status (SSS) and violent behavior among adolescents in southern Brazil, using data from the 2004 Pelotas Birth Cohort, a population-based study. Data from 1,752 adolescents were analyzed. SSS was assessed at age 15 using the MacArthur Scale, and involvement in violent crime was measured at age 18 through a confidential selfreport questionnaire. At age 18, 11.6% of participants reported having committed one or more violent crime in the previous year. While SSS was strongly associated with objective indicators of family socioeconomic status and with psychosocial factors in childhood, no evidence was found of an association between SSS and violent crime (OR = 0.95; 95% CI: 0.36 to 2.56 comparing low SSS to high SSS). No significant interaction was found between SSS and objective socioeconomic status in predicting violent crime. SSS does not predict violence from mid to late adolescence in this population in Southern Brazil. It is still unclear whether SSS at older ages might influence violence, or whether effects are more relevant to current behavior – as observed in other cross-sectional studies, indicating the need for further investigations to understand the relationships across different ages as well as varying contexts.