Research has often cited urbanicity, or dwelling in an urban setting, as a risk factor for developing the symptoms associated with psychosis. A new study, published in Schizophrenia Bulletin, examines the impact of urbanicity, adverse neighborhood conditions, and violent crime victimization on developing psychotic experiences in adolescence. The authors, led by Joanne Newbury of King’s College London, determined that adolescents raised in urban vs. rural areas were significantly more likely to report psychotic experiences and that, when combined, neighborhood social conditions and personal crime victimization were significantly associated to adolescent psychotic experiences.
“Most prior research on the emergence of adolescent psychotic experiences has focused on the individual- level risk factors and little is currently known about the potential impact of macro-level structures such as urbanicity and neighborhood-level social processes like social fragmentation and crime,” Newbury and the co-authors write.
Urbanicity is a well-accepted risk factor for psychosis. Moreover, numerous studies have confirmed higher rates of psychotic spectrum disorder in urban populations. A 2015 study found that from 1990 to 2010, rates of schizophrenia in rural areas remained stable at .36% while rates in urban areas rose to .68%. The authors of the present study point out that research has often focused on individual-level factors, discounting the potential impact of macro-level structures and neighborhood-level social processes to explain this relationship.
[For more on this story by Bernalyn Ruiz, go to https://www.madinamerica.com/2...periences-five-fold/]
Comments (0)