Social Support and Social Constraints Moderate the Relation between Community Violence Exposure and Depressive Symptoms in an Urban Adolescent Sample

Abstract

this longitudinal study examined whether the perceived availability of adult social support and low levels of adult social constraints in talking about violence could potentially mitigate the positive relation between community violence exposure and depressive symptoms among 216 inner-city youth (45% male, 92% african american). the majority of youth (90%) reported witnessing violence or being victimized at least once in the prior year. Perceived social support, social constraints, and depressive symptoms were assessed at two waves via self-report, eight months apart. Longitudinal regression analyses controlling for baseline depressive symptoms revealed interactive effects of community violence exposure and both social variables on depressive symptoms. Violence exposure at time 1 was positively related to time 2 depressive symptoms among youth with high levels of social constraints or low levels of social support, but not among youth with low levels of social constraints or high levels of social support. the moderating effects of social constraints and social support were independent of one another. the implications of this research for social interventions are discussed.

Exposure to Violence, Social Cognitive Processing, and Sleep Problems in Urban Adolescents

“…Thus, assisting parents with their own cognitive processing and coping skills might help children by making parents more sensitive and responsive to their children’s needs. However, because youth in violence-ridden neighborhoods may have to cope with unsupportive and negative parental responses to their disclosures about violence (Dinizulu, 2014; Kaynak et al, 2011), interventions that can enhance cognitive control may be more effective than interventions addressing social conditions.…”

High self-control protects the link between social support and positivity ratio for Israeli students exposed to contextual risk

“…For example, in crosssectional studies on middle-school adolescents in the United States, social support moderated the relation between poverty and academic performance (Malecki & Demaray, 2006) and the relation between victimization and internalizing-externalizing distress from bullying (Davidson & Demaray, 2007). Similarly, longitudinal studies point to the buffering role of PSS for adolescents, such as in the association between exposure to community violence and internalizing symptoms (Kaynak, Lepore, & Kliewer, 2011;Rosario, Salzinger, Feldman, & Ng-Mak, 2008), and between distress from bullying and academic achievement (Rothon, Head, Klineberg, & Stansfeld, 2011).…”

The role of social constraints and catastrophizing in pelvic and urogenital pain

“…As such, social constraints differs from the more general construct of social support. Previous research has found little relationship between the two constructs, and differential predictive ability when social constraints was compared with measures of social support [17,18].…”