Prior research documents increased trauma symptoms associated with exposure to violence, primarily by examining types of violence separately. This study extends prior research by examining traumatic stress symptoms associated with two types of violence exposure, community violence and partner violence. A sample of 90 low-income African American women from an urban area completed measures assessing exposure to community violence, partner violence, and trauma symptoms. Exposure to community violence and partner violence were associated with increased reporting of trauma symptoms. Participants who experienced high levels of exposure to both types of violence reported more trauma symptoms than women who were exposed to only one type of violence or neither type of violence. The results suggest that the accumulation of exposures to violence is linked with greater distress. Thus, interventions with women exposed to violence should assess violence exposure in multiple domains and attend to the implications of multiple exposures to violence.

Underage drinking and its associated problems have profound negative consequences for underage drinkers themselves, their families, their communities, and society as a whole, and contribute to a wide range of costly health and social problems. There is increased risk of negative consequences with heavy episodic or binge drinking. Alcohol is a factor related to approximately 4,300 deaths among underage youths in the U.S. every year. Since the mid-1980s, the nation has launched aggressive underage drinking prevention efforts at the federal, state, and local levels, and national epidemiologic data suggest that these efforts are having positive effects. For example, since 1982, alcohol-related traffic deaths among youth aged 16-20 years have declined by 79%. Evidence-based or promising strategies for reducing underage drinking include those that limit the physical, social, and economic availability of alcohol to youth, make it illegal for drivers aged <21 years to drive after drinking, and provide mechanisms for early identification of problem drinkers. Strategies may be implemented through a comprehensive prevention approach including policies and their enforcement, public awareness and education, action by community coalitions, and early brief alcohol intervention and referral programs. This paper focuses on underage drinking laws and their enforcement because these constitute perhaps the most fundamental component of efforts to limit youth access to and use of alcohol.

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