Adolescents’ psychological functioning and unintentional injuries: motor vehicles and sports accidents

Adolescence represents a crucial period for psychological development. Adolescents have been shown more prone to injuries than adults have and they are frequently involved in motor vehicle and sports accident. Although adolescents’ injuries have been widely investigated in international literature, victims’ psychological profiles associated with different types of accidents have been scarcely addressed. The present study aimed to identify adolescents’ psychological functioning associated with different types of injuries among a population of Italian adolescents who visited an emergency department. Moreover, the present paper intended to compare psychological profiles of adolescents who have had road and sports accidents. The sample was composed by N= 60 adolescents who attended an emergency department in central Italy. Subjects completed self-report measures assessing emotional and behavioural functioning and the use of defence mechanisms. Both road and sport accidents were associated with adolescents’ maladaptive psychological functioning. Adolescents involved in motor vehicle accidents showed a problematic emotional and behavioural functioning in general and a massive use of defense strategies; their peers who had sport accidents also show various difficulties in internalizing and externalizing functioning. Several adolescents’ emotional-behavioural variables are associated with injuries rates. Risk taking behaviours and other victims’ psychological profiles should be considered to have an exhaustive picture of individual factors that can impair a healthy development.