Children's Exposure to Community Violence: Implications for Understanding Risk and Resilience

Abstract

The 5 articles included in this special section are reviewed in this article. The studies encompassed were all focused on pre-or early adolescents, and samples were generally from inner-city areas, with 1 involving rural youth. Considered collectively, the results point to 3 major conclusions: Many children in America are regularly exposed to violence in communities; such exposure carries risk for psychopathology; and parents and other adults can provide valuable support but are limited in how much they can offset the effects of ongoing violence exposure. Intervention implications are, foremost, that community violence itself must be reduced and, second, that positive relationships with significant adults should be fostered to the degree possible among children living in high-risk, violence-prone communities.The five articles on violence exposure within this special section reflect several strengths, including the focus on rural as well as urban children, the use of multiple methods and respondents in assessments, and the exploration of diverse potentially protective processes, including different parenting domains and high perceived support from various people in the child's life. Considered in tandem, the results of these studies point to a series of three major conclusions.

Secondary Exposure to Violence During Childhood and Adolescence: Does Neighborhood Context Matter?

“…Parenting characteristics have also been implemented in predicting secondary exposure to violence; however, these studies are less consistent in their effects (Gorman-Smith & Tolan, 1998) and some scholars even argue that parenting variables work as moderators instead of having direct effects on exposure (see Buka et al, 2001). For instance, some studies reveal that factors which describe parent-child relations such as monitoring, conflict, and involvement do not predict exposure (Miller, Wasserman, Neugebauer, Gorman-Smith, & Kamboukos, 1999), while others conclude that parental supervision/monitoring and support can (GormanSmith, Henry, & Tolan, 2004;Luther & Goldstein, 2004). Other studies show that behavioral problems, especially antisocial and delinquent behaviors, put youth at an increased risk for experiencing secondary violence (Kuo, Mohler, Raudenbush, & Earls, 2000;Selner-O'Hagan et al, 1998), but it is unclear whether these relationships are causal because both have also been studied as outcomes of exposure.…”

“…Scholars have made calls to target the environments in which children live to alleviate violence exposure and the resulting negative consequences (Luther & Goldstein, 2004;Sullivan, Kung, & Farrell, 2004), but such calls do not appear to be empirically grounded in research that indicates structural and social aspects of neighborhoods are any more important than individual risk factors.…”

Victimización, resiliencia y salud mental de estudiantes de universidad en Tamaulipas, México

“…Asimismo, hallamos que la resiliencia puede moderar la relación entre la victimización directa e indirecta con la presencia de sintomatología psicológica, y que niveles altos de resiliencia limitan esta relación, tal como lo han señalado autores previos (Grych & Hamby, 2015;Luthar & Goldstein, 2004;O'Donnell et al, 2002).…”

“…Ante la exposición crónica a la violencia comunitaria, la resiliencia puede favorecerse por recursos personales como las estrategias de afrontamiento (Rosario et al, 2008) o la espiritualidad (Jones, 2007), fortalezas familiares en términos de funcionamiento (Luthar & Goldstein, 2004), el contar con redes de apoyo en la escuela y la comunidad (O'Donnell et al, 2002) Sin embargo, las estrategias de afrontamiento, el apoyo social y el funcionamiento familiar tienen un nivel limitado de protección cuando existe una alta exposición a violencia comunitaria (Luthar & Goldstein, 2004;Rosario et al, 2008).…”

Adolescência e jovem adultícia: crescimento pessoal, separação-individuação e o jogo das relações

“…A este propósito, é pertinente abordar o conceito de resiliência, também ele um processo, que parece estar directamente relacionado com a dinâmica de resolução positiva dos obstáculos (ou oportunidades de desenvolvimento) que se vão colocando ao sujeito. A resiliência é potencialmente facilitada, entre outros aspectos, pela qualidade dos contextos afectivos presentes na vida dos jovens (e.g., Luthar & Goldstein, 2004). Assim, o desenvolvimento pessoal passa pelo processo de individuação e pela forma como estes jovens percebem as suas experiências emocionais como sendo mais ou menos satisfatórias, repercutindo-se na relação com as demais figuras significativas (Buhl, 2008).…”