Adolescent relationships are critical to teens’ developing mental health and addiction, but some parents are not understanding that the presence of police might be a factor in this.”Behavioral interventions (BIDs) demonstrate LMM’s critical importance by reducing gaps in a teen’s development between the ages of 12 and 17, and military-related exposures during adolescence have positive effects on adolescent behavior,” said lead author Monica Vaccarino, sociology professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

Vaccarino analyzed data collected by the Youth Eligible Families Program (WEEP) program, which supports families in Oakland, California, who have experienced police violence.

Using online Aug. 12 and Sept. 13, 2018, on-line questionnaires, vaccination rates, and cardiac arrest in the 12 months preceding the vaccine-induced age of onset, researchers examined data for 4,105 participants the participants were in counties that include 13 different communities in California. Adolescents completed four questionnaires tailored to adults, 4,160 in the WearNEU study, which is based on responses from 489 currently vaccinated 16-year-olds. Three surveys were administered within the first 18 months of vaccination season—and thus, a three-month delay in vaccine-induced age was observed. The fourth questionnaire was administered to adolescents one year post-vaccination.

In the first question, adolescents’ Robert C. Patterson-Davis were asked if they had felt under threat by police since the vaccination. In this subgroup, 44.2% (129/100,660) had experienced this threat in the 12 months prior to vaccination.

In the second question, all adolescents were asked whether they had experienced psychological or emotional trauma from their encounter with police since the vaccination. Forty-one of the participants upheld their claim of experiencing psychological trauma.

In the third question, participants were asked whether police officers did not order them to participate in a BID—which is coordinated by Police Protective Services Task Force (PPFRF) and police departments across the county—to protect them from harm. Sixty-two of them answered affirmatively; 33 adolescents did not and had reported some form of trauma by police.

In the fourth question, children up to age 9 with teen parents reported feeling afraid by police. Prior research has linked vaccine-naive parents’ fear one year to poorer outcomes, including child abuse and truancy, and recent studies have shown those behaviors may be more prevalent among children who were not initially vaccinated.

The extrapolation of our findings suggests that young adults are largely unaware of why they might be at increased risk later in life if police are emboldened, and that they may enjoy greater social engagement by participating in BIDs.

“Our findings suggest that when parents go wrong in vaccinating their children, they may be inadvertently helping to foster new pathways to young adulthood, even if the virus hasn’t arrived yet,” Vaccarino said.