Exposure to Community Violence, Suicidality, and Psychological Distress Among African American and Latino Youths: Findings From the CDC Youth Violence Survey

Abstract

The present investigation explored risk and protective factors for suicidal ideation and behavior in a sub-sample of African American and Latino adolescents (n = 2,626) who participated in the 2004 Centers for Disease Control Youth Violence Survey. Structural equation modeling was used to explore exposure to violence at the community level as a contextual factor that could potentially influence depressive symptomatology, substance abuse, parental support, social support, and suicidality among study participants. Findings indicated that exposure to violence at the community level was not directly related to suicidality among this population of urban adolescents. However, it was directly related with several other variables under study in the model, which in turn were directly related with suicidality. Tests of invariance revealed several across-group differences, particularly by race and gender, in how the identified risk and protective factors in the model related to suicidality. Implications for research and practice with urban, ethnic minority, adolescent populations are discussed.

Keywords:

• Community violence
• suicidality
• psychological distress
• CDC
• youth violence

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors acknowledge Dr. Alex Crosby of the Division of Violence Prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for his insightful comments and suggestions that helped in the completion of this submission.