Posttraumatic Stress, Academic Performance, and Future Orientation as Pathways to Community Violence Exposure and Sexual Risk among African American Youth in Chicago's Southside

Abstract

Posttraumatic stress, low academic performance, and future orientation as pathways from community violence exposure to sexual risk-taking behavior were examined among 753 African American youth in a large urban school district, ranging from ages of 13 to 24 years. Youth completed a self-report instrument. Youth completed a self-report instrument of Exposure to Violence Probe, University of California at Los Angeles’ PTSD Reaction Index Adolescent Version, and Coopersmith’s Self-Esteem Scale. Structural equation modeling was performed to examine relationships among the major study variables. Results indicated that community violence exposure was not directly associated with sexual risk behavior. However, community violence exposure had a significantly positive impact on posttraumatic stress, which was associated with low future orientation and sexual risk behavior. Findings suggest that targeted interventions need to consider variables that mediate the association between violence exposure and sexual risk behavior, which can reduce poor sexual health outcomes among urban youth who are exposed to violence in their community.

Keywords:

• African American
• community violence
• future orientation
• sexual risk
• youth

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Human Participants/Animals

There are no ethical issues with regards to human participants/animals in the present study. The present study was approved by the Institutional Review Board.

Informed Consent

There are no ethical issues with regards to informed consent in the present study.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by the Center for Health Administration Studies and the STI/HIV Intervention Network at the University of Chicago, which were awarded to Dr. Dexter R. Voisin. Dr. Jingu Kim also received funding from KU Research Professor Program at Konkuk University to participate in this study.