Community violence exposure and children's social adjustment in the school peer group: The mediating roles of emotion regulation and social cognition.

Abstract

This study reports a cross-sectional investigation of the relation between community violence exposure and peer group social maladjustment in 285 inner-city children in Grades 4-6 (mean age = 10.3 years). Children completed an inventory assessing exposure to community violence through witnessing and through direct victimization. A peer nomination inventory was then administered to assess social adjustment with peers (aggression, peer rejection, and bullying by peers). In addition, social-cognitive biases and emotion regulation capacities were examined as potential mediators. Analyses indicated that violent victimization was associated with negative social outcomes through the mediation of emotion dysregulation. Witnessed violence was linked only to aggressive behavior. Social information processing, rather than emotion dysregulation, appeared to mediate this association. These results demonstrate that violence exposure is linked to multiple levels of behavioral and social maladjustment and suggest that there are distinct patterns of risk associated with different forms of exposure.

Psychopathy, gang membership, and moral disengagement among juvenile offenders

“…However, it has been suggested that the correlates, consequences, and mechanisms of influence related to direct experiences (i.e., violence victimization) and observation of violence (i.e., witnessing violence) may differ significantly (Schwartz & Proctor, 2000). The potential impact of the experience of violence victimization on moral disengagement is unclear.…”

The Role of Violent Media Preference in Cumulative Developmental Risk for Violence and General Aggression

“…The risk factors for aggressive behavior in childhood and adolescence are legion and include, among others: exposure to violence and aggression in the community (i.e., witnessing or being victimized by aggressive acts; Guerra et al 2003;Schwartz and Proctor 2000), in the family (e.g., viewing spousal abuse or receiving harsh physical discipline; Boxer et al (in press);McCloskey et al 1995), and in schools and peer groups (e.g., victimization by physically or relationally aggressive acts, membership in antisocial peer groups; Boxer et al 2003;Espelage et al 2003). Additional identified risk factors include academic difficulties (e.g., low intelligence, poor achievement, learning disability; Huesmann et al 1987;Stipek 1998); psychopathic tendencies or callousness-unemotionality (e.g., shallow affect, lack of concern for others; Frick et al 2003); and psychopathology or related emotional problems (e.g., depression, psychotic symptoms; Boxer 2007; Knox et al 2000).…”

Restoring paradise in the Caribbean: combatting violence with numbers

“…Such surveys have the potential to produce high-quality statistics, since they use interviewers who are trained specifically for that purpose and who are well equipped to deal with this sensitive topic" (United Nations 2013, 6). 9 See Durrant et al (1994) and Schwartz and Proctor (2000). 10 Seventy-one percent of rural parents and 55 percent of urban parents reported flogging as the most frequent response to perceived misbehaviour in their children.…”