[Psychometric properties of a direct violence scale and its behavioral mediation].

Background: The lack of valid instruments to assess direct violence (DV) limits the understanding of its impact on mental health, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and substance use. Objective: To validate an expanded DV subscale as an autonomous measure in Mexican adolescents and to examine its association with PTSD and abusive alcohol consumption (AAC) through a mediation model. Material and methods: A quantitative study with a mediation analysis approach was conducted in a sample of 3963 adolescents aged 14 to 19 from eleven Mexican cities. A subset of items from the DV factor of the Exposure to community violence in aolescents scale was used, with the addition of three context-specific items and the response format. PTSD symptoms and AAC were also assessed. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were performed, along with a mediation model. Results: Findings support the psychometric validity of the standalone EVDA-10 scale. Mediation analysis showed that physical-verbal violence was significantly associated with AAC, through the PTSD symptom of intrusion. Conclusions: The study highlights the relevance of trauma-related symptoms as intermediate mechanisms explaining the impact of violence on risk behaviors, and underscore the need for early detection and trauma-informed interventions targeting post-traumatic symptoms in adolescents.