Early Predictors of Urban Adolescents’ Community Violence Exposure

Abstract

This study examined the extent to which individual, peer, and family factors predicted the onset of community violence exposure in middle and high school, as well as the indirect effects of early factors. We were particularly interested in the timing of exposure to community violence during adolescence, and thus conducted survival analyses on data from 632 urban youth, followed from first grade through high school. Early aggressive behavior and poor academic readiness were associated with an earlier onset of community violence exposure in adolescence. The effects of early aggression on community violence exposure and victimization were accounted for, in part, by peer rejection and deviant peer affiliation; there was no evidence of moderation by gender or parental monitoring. Findings highlight potential targets for preventive interventions with youth at risk of community violence exposure.

Keywords:

• adolescence risk
• community violence exposure
• survival analysis
• urban

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health (MH057005) and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (DA11796).

Notes

¹It is acknowledged that participants might have been exposed to community violence prior to sixth grade. However, information regarding community violence exposure prior to Grade 6 was not available.