Assessing urban African American youths’ exposure to community violence through a daily sampling method.

Abstract

Objective: The traditional use of retrospective self-report to measure exposure to community violence over long periods of time has limitations overcome by an approach described here. This article explores an innovative approach in assessing community violence exposure with time-sampling methodology, where reporting occurs within daily accounts to provide a more immediate measure of community violence exposure. Method: Data were collected over 1 week from 169 urban African American young adolescents (M age = 11.7 years, SD = .70, 62% female) using questionnaires and the Daily Sampling Method, a diary technique that captures a child’s daily accounts of community violence exposure (DCVE). Results: Analyses revealed youth experienced 841 total violent incidents, or close to 1 daily incident per youth for the week. As expected, the majority of incidents occurred between 3 p.m. and 8 p.m., and in public settings. Unexpectedly, higher rates of both victimization and witnessing occurred during weekdays compared with weekend days, and girls reported significantly more DCVE than boys. The DCVE provide a unique glimpse into the more immediate experience of life in high-risk neighborhoods. Conclusion: This study underscores the need to measure DCVE in ways that address the daily experience of youth living in high-risk environments. By identifying timing and location of exposure, we can develop interventions to keep youth safer from violence exposure.

Safe Spaces Embedded in Dangerous Contexts: How Chicago Youth Navigate Daily Life and Demonstrate Resilience in High‐Crime Neighborhoods

“…Nationally, boys are more likely to be exposed to more physical forms of violence and are more likely to witness violence, while girls are more likely to be exposed to relational violence, sexual violence, and harassment (Finkelhor, Turner, Shattuck, Hamby, & Kracke, 2015). However, in Chicago, one study found that rates of violence exposure were comparable across genders (Rasmussen, Aber, & Bhana, 2004), while another found that girls were more likely than boys to report accounts of violence in their daily routines (Richards et al, 2014). Rengifo et al (2017) found that boys' perceptions of police were directly related to negative interactions and experiences of harassment.…”

Overcoming exposure to complex stressors: An examination of protective coping mechanisms for low-income urban African American youth

“…In terms of gender, similar to age, no differences were reported across school stressors, violent stressors, or violent stressors categorized into witnessing and victimization. While most studies have found that males are at greater risk of community violence exposure in general (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2011;Cooley-Quille, Boyd, Frantz, & Walsh, 2001) and across both victimization (Ceballo, Dahl, Aretakis, & Ramirez, 2001) and witnessing (Selner-O'Hagan et al, 1998), the opposite pattern has also been observed with females reporting more of both types of exposure (Richards et al, 2015). Based on these mixed findings, and the lack of gender differences in the current study, it remains unclear how gender may relate to exposure to stressors in this population.…”

“…This is especially concerning given that African Americans only represent approximately one-third of the city's population, and African American men between the ages of 15 and 34 only represent four percent of the population (Kapustin et al, 2017). Although children do not appear to be the most at-risk for becoming victims of violence, research conducted within low-income neighborhoods of Chicago has estimated that children between sixth and eighth grade are exposed to about six violent incidents a week (Richards et al, 2015). Even younger children may be exposed to similar levels of violence, as 77 percent of Chicago's gun homicides and shootings in 2016 took place on the street or in an alley, largely concentrated within low-income African American neighborhoods (Kapustin et al, 2017).…”

Violence exposure is associated with adolescents' same‐ and next‐day mental health symptoms

“…Understanding both the immediate and long-term associations between mental health symptoms and violence exposure is important given that approximately one in four young people in the United States have witnessed violence in their home or community over the past year (Finkelhor, Turner, Shattuck, & Hamby, 2013). For youth living in urban neighborhoods, approximately one incident of community violence exposure is reported per week using daily sampling methods (Richards et al, 2015).…”