Buffering the effects of violence: communication and problem‐solving skills as protective factors for adolescents exposed to violence

Although many adolescents exposed to violence evidence negative outcomes, some report few deleterious effects, indicating the presence of moderating variables. This study examined the moderating role of family communication and problem solving on positive and negative outcomes in adolescents exposed to school and neighborhood violence. Participants were 90 adolescents and their parents, who completed measures of violence exposure, psychological and behavioral functioning, and communication and problem‐solving skills. Results indicated that after controlling for demographic variables and violence exposure in the home, communication and problem‐solving skills moderated the association between school and neighborhood violence exposure and psychological distress. There was no moderation of the violence exposure‐positive outcome association. The findings suggest that family communication and problem‐solving skills might serve a protective function for adolescents, thereby decreasing psychological distress in the face of school and neighborhood violence exposure. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

First‐grade child risk behaviors for community violence exposure in middle school

This study examined behavioral indicators (measured by multiple informants) of young urban children's exposure to community violence during middle school. The community‐based school sample included 549 students (53% male; 86.8% African American, 13.2% Euro American). First‐grade aggressive behavior and anxiety symptoms were examined as predictors of later victimization and witnessing of community violence. Logistic regression analyses indicated that girls' first‐grade aggression significantly predicted witnessing violence in middle school, regardless of informant. Parent‐reported child aggression significantly predicted boys' later victimization. Teacher‐ and parent‐reported child aggression was associated with witnessing more community violence among boys with low self‐reported anxiety. Anxiety attenuated the relationship between aggression and witnessing community violence during adolescence for boys. The importance of the identifying early predictors of later community violence exposure in designing preventive interventions is discussed. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comm Psychol 31: 297–314, 2003.     

Exposure to community violence among Arab youth in Israel: rates and characteristics

The research explored the rates and characteristics of exposure to community violence (CV) and its relevance to several sociodemographic factors among a sample of 833 Arab youth aged 14–18 years residing in diverse residential areas in Israel. Data were collected using a self‐report questionnaire. The frequency of exposure to CV during the past 12 months correlated significantly with the children's gender. The frequency of witnessing CV during that period was higher than the frequency of personally experiencing CV, and exposure to mild CV incidents during that period was higher than the frequency of exposure to severe CV incidents during the same period, with no significant relationship to sociodemographic factors. Participants reported higher rates of exposure to most CV incidents outside of the neighborhood; however, exposure to beating was higher inside the participants' neighborhood. Moreover, the highest overall rate of exposure to CV was at school. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Dyadic attachments and community connectedness: Links with youths' loneliness experiences

In this article, we explored the belongingness hypothesis by examining the influence of youths' dyadic attachments and community connectedness on their experiences of loneliness. Fifth and sixth graders (N = 187) reported on their attachments to their mothers, fathers, best friends, and their connectedness to their schools and neighborhoods. Self‐reports of global loneliness, loneliness in the school and neighborhood contexts, and emotional and social loneliness were obtained. Youths' dyadic attachment to their best friends was more significant in accounting for their loneliness experiences than their attachments to either parent. Youths' connectedness to their school and neighborhood communities was significantly associated with their experiences of global, social, and neighborhood loneliness. The data suggest that youths' sense of community within their different environmental contexts (i.e., neighborhood, school) differentially influence their psychological well‐being, as demonstrated by their associations to loneliness. The importance of creating communities that meet youths' needs is discussed. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Pathways to aggression in urban elementary school youth

This study examined the pathways from violence exposure to aggressive behaviors in urban, elementary school youth. We utilized structural equation modeling to examine putative causal pathways between children's exposure to violence, development of posttraumatic stress symptoms, permissive attitudes towards violence, and engagement in aggressive behaviors. Self‐report measures were administered to 259 4th‐grade students from urban schools. Almost 100% of participants reported exposure to at least one experience with violence. Results demonstrated that both posttraumatic stress symptoms and attitudes toward violence mediated the relation between exposure to violence and aggression. This model suggests that the relation between violence exposure and youth violence and aggression is multidetermined, suggesting the need for both the developmental adaptation of tertiary prevention and intervention strategies so as to be suitable for younger children, as well as the need for multiple or multifaceted interventions. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Individual Differences in Children's Reactions to Divorce

Children from families undergoing parental separation or divorce were interviewed about their own reactions and adjustment to this disruptive event. The children's mothers were also asked to report on their own reactions, as well as their children's. A subgroup was observed in a play session. Data were used to examine the factor surrounding children who manifested more behavior problems and more recent physical illnesses. Mothers of children who exhibited more behavior problems reported more mood disturbances; if this group consisted of boys, they engaged in less interactive play. Illness had opposite relationships with other variables for boys and girls; boys with more illness had more interactive play sessions with their mothers, whereas girls with more illness had less interactive and more noncontingent play periods. Results are discussed in terms of the different meaning that stress reactions have for both boys and girls and their mothers.     

Association between children's exposure to a violent event and objectively and subjectively measured sleep characteristics: a pilot longitudinal study

Although sleep disturbances are commonly reported among children exposed to violence, objective evidence of such disturbances is rare. This longitudinal, home‐based study assessed the effects of a known community‐ or family‐violence incident on both actigraphy‐derived and subjectively reported sleep outcomes of an ethnically mixed, urban sample of children aged 8–16 years. We hypothesized that increased event severity (child physical assault, witnessed homicide) would be associated with lower sleep duration and poorer sleep quality both at baseline and at 3‐month follow‐up. Covariate‐adjusted analyses based on a generalized estimating equations approach showed that children physically assaulted during the event showed lower sleep duration and sleep efficiency and greater wake after sleep onset than those not physically assaulted. Physically assaulted children were more likely to have a later bedtime than non‐assaulted children, but this difference decreased at 3 months. Children witnessing a homicide showed greater wake after sleep onset at baseline and reported greater sleep problems than those witnessing a non‐homicide event, but these differences decreased at 3 months. They were also somewhat more likely to have greater nightly variation in sleep duration. Collectively, results suggest that violence exposure influences children's sleep, but that specific dimensions of sleep may exhibit different susceptibility to different characteristics of violence, especially over time.     

Culture and the socialization of child cardiovascular regulation at school entry in the US

The measurement of cardiovascular functioning targets an important bridge between social conditions and differential well‐being. Nevertheless, the biocultural, psychosocial processes that link human ecology to cardiovascular function in children remain inadequately characterized. Childrearing practices shaped by parents' cultural beliefs should moderate children's affective responses to daily experience, and hence their psychophysiology. The present study concerns interactions among family ecology, the normative social challenge of entry into kindergarten, and parasympathetic (vagal) cardiac regulation in US middle‐class children (N = 30). Although parents believed children must be protected from overscheduling to reduce stress and improve socio‐emotional adaptation, maternal rather than child schedules predicted parasympathetic regulation during a nonthreatening social engagement task following school entry. Children of busier married mothers, but less busy single mothers, showed the context‐appropriate pattern of parasympathetic regulation, low respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA). These findings are expected if: maternal and family functioning, rather than the scheduling of the child's daily life, principally drive young children's cardiovascular responsiveness to a normative challenge; and busy schedules represent high family functioning with married mothers, but not under single‐parent conditions wherein adult staffing is uniquely constrained. Family ecology is shaped by culture, and in turn shapes the development of children's cardiovascular responses. Appropriately fine‐grained analysis of daily experience can illustrate how culturally driven parenting practices may have unintended consequences for child biological outcomes that vary by family structure. Am. J. Hum. Biol., 2008. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Mental Health Professionals' Perception of the Utility of Children,Mothers, and Teachers as Informants on Childhood Psychopathology

Surveyed clinicians' and researchers' perceptions of the relative usefulness of prepubertal children, their mothers, and teachers as informants on children's problem behavior. Findings showed a high level of agreement within types of informants surveyed. Children were seen as the least useful informants on their own hyperactivity, attention problems, and oppositional behavior. Teachers were judged superior to mothers as informants on children's hyperactivity/inattentiveness; these relative ratings were reversed for oppositional child behavior. Children and mothers were perceived as more useful informants than teachers, on children's internalizing problems, with mothers scoring higher than children in all but one area–worrying. The survey results largely agree with those of other studies using different methods.     

Children's Exposure to Violence and Distress Symptoms: Influence of Caretakers' Psychological Functioning

Background

Previous studies linking violence exposure to adverse child behavior have typically relied on parental report of child symptoms without accounting for the informant's mental well-being, despite evidence that parental mental health can influence children's mental health and the parent's report of distress symptoms.

Purpose

We assess the influence of maternal depression on the violence exposure and child distress association in a subset of the Maternal Infant Smoking Study of East Boston, a prospective birth cohort.

Methods

Mothers reported on their children's violence exposure using the Survey of Children's Exposure to Community Violence (ETV) and completed the Checklist of Child Distress Symptoms (CCDS). The children also completed the ETV survey and the self-report version of the CCDS. Linear regression was used to assess the influence of violence exposure on distress symptoms adjusting for potential confounders, first using parent's report of exposure and outcome and a second time using the child's self-report. The mediating effect of maternal depression on the violence and distress association was also tested.

Results

Among the 162 children ages 7 to 11, 51% were boys and 43% self-identified as Hispanic. When using child self-report, increased violence exposure was significantly associated with a broader range of distress symptoms (numbness, arousal, intrusion, avoidance subscales) compared to parent reported findings, which were only significantly related to the intrusion and avoidance subscales. Moreover, a significant mediation effect of maternal depression on the violence and distress association was noted only when mother's report of exposure and outcome was used.

Conclusion

Considering both parent and child self-report of violence is necessary to obtain a complete picture of violence exposure because parents and children may be offering different, although equally valid information. The influence of maternal depressive symptoms on preadolescent's distress symptoms may be attributed to reporting bias as opposed to more direct effects; thus, the parent's psychological functioning should be taken into consideration when relying on parental report of the child's psychological functioning.     

IT'S IN MY HOOD: UNDERSTANDING AFRICAN AMERICAN BOYS’ PERCEPTION OF SAFETY IN THEIR NEIGHBORHOODS

Youths' perceptions of their neighborhood are shaped by continued exposure to neighborhood influences. African‐American boys in poor, urban contexts are more directly affected by their neighborhoods and are more likely to develop related difficulties such as victimization experiences, and exposure to violence. This study examines African‐American boys' perceptions of safety in their neighborhood. Data were collected in 1994 from 553 African‐American males at the baseline of an intervention study ‐ the Aban Aya Youth Project (AAYP) ‐ among inner city youth in 12 schools from poor, metropolitan Chicago neighborhoods. We found a significant influence for the interaction between collective efficacy and violent experiences on perception of neighborhood safety. The findings highlight how both neighborhood strengths and risks interact to influence the functioning of African‐American boys in disadvantaged communities. More importantly the study demonstrates how neighborhood support or neighborhood collective efficacy can be especially protective to African‐American boys in high‐risk urban settings.     

A FIRST LOOK AT NATURAL MENTORING AMONG PREADOLESCENT FOSTER CHILDREN

This study describes natural mentoring among preadolescent children placed in out‐of‐home care and examines the association between natural mentoring and demographic, maltreatment, placement, and psychosocial characteristics. Cross‐sectional data from a sample of 263 children and their out‐of‐home caregivers were analyzed. Caregivers rated children's social skills, and children reported on their perceived opportunities and attachment to peers and adults, including natural mentors. About half the sample endorsed having natural mentors, with school personnel being the most common type of mentor. Children with natural mentors were older, more likely to be living in congregate care, and had stronger attachment to friends. Marginally significant findings suggested that children with natural mentors had been in out‐of‐home care for fewer months, and children who were sexually abused were less likely to have natural mentors with whom they had current contact. Future research is needed that examines the longitudinal course of natural mentoring among this population.     

Behavioural treatment for sleep problems in children with severe learning disabilities and challenging daytime behaviour: Effect on sleep patterns of mother and child

Children with sleep problems present serious management problems to their parents. Such children are also more likely to have additional problems, behavioural disturbance being particularly common. This randomized controlled trial of behavioural interventions for the children's sleep problems was conducted to explore the efficacy and mechanisms of treatment in children with the most extreme forms of problems: severe learning disabilities, severe sleep problems and severe daytime challenging behaviour. Fifteen index families received behavioural advice for the child's sleep problem and were compared with 15 matched controls who received no such advice. Repeat assessments of the children's and mothers’ sleep were made by parental report as well as actometry. Objective changes in the children's sleep quality and quantity were not seen after treatment. However, mothers in the treatment group reported improvements in the children's sleep problems and had an increased sleeping time themselves following treatment. The results indicate that sleep problems can be successfully treated in this group of children, although the mechanisms of treatment may not be as direct as supposed. This has implications for understanding of sleep problems in children with learning disabilities and also for clinical practice, when considering ways of offering help to these highly ‘challenged’ families.     

Community and school violence as significant risk factors for school climate and bonding of teachers in Chile: A national hierarchical multilevel analysis

Community and school violence involve aggressive behaviors among youth and adults. Researchers have focused mostly on aggression among students without considering teachers as victims of violence. The study's purpose was to examine the consequences of community violence, school violence, and school climate on the levels of teacher's bonding to the school. We examined data of 5733 teachers from 510 schools in 68 different communities in Chile. We used Hierarchical Linear Modeling to examine the relationship between the individual, school, and community‐level variables. We found direct associations with school bonding at the individual level for victim school violence, school climate, size and type of school, and violence in the community at the community level. Our results highlight the importance of school violence prevention from a comprehensive perspective, starting at the community level, followed by the school to provide more teacher's support.     

Observations of sibling interactions in violent families

This study examined sibling relationships of children from violent and non‐violent families. Participants included 20 children (10 dyads) who were shelter residents and their mothers and 40 children (20 dyads) from the community and their mothers. Mothers reported on children's behavior problems, sibling conflict resolution strategies, and the quality of the sibling relationship. Children reported on the quality of their sibling relationships. Sibling interactions were observed during both cooperative and competitive tasks. Shelter children had more internalizing problems than comparison children did. Mothers reported that siblings from violent homes used less verbal and physical aggression than the comparison group. Siblings in the shelter group were supportive. There were no significant differences in observed conflictual behavior. The importance of the sibling relationship and implications for intervention are discussed. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Emotion Regulation in Children With Anxiety Disorders

This study examined emotion management skills in addition to the role of emotional intensity and self-efficacy in emotion regulation in 26 children with anxiety disorders (ADs) ages 8 to 12 years and their counterparts without any form of psychopathology. Children completed the Children's Emotion Management Scales (CEMS) and Emotion Regulation Interview (ERI), and mothers reported on their children's emotion regulation using the Emotion Regulation Checklist (ERC). Results indicated that children who met Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders (4th ed., American Psychiatric Association, 1994) criteria for an anxiety disorder had difficulty managing worried, sad, and anger experiences, potentially due to their report of experiencing emotions with high intensity and having little confidence in their ability to regulate this arousal. These findings indicate that emotion regulation needs to be considered centrally in research with anxious populations.     

Childhood posttraumatic stress disorder and efforts to cope after Hurricane Floyd

The authors report on the level of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) experienced by fourth-grade children 6 months after Hurricane Floyd and describe the children's efforts to cope with their stress. All of the children they studied were directly affected by the hurricane, secondary to the destruction of their school by floodwaters. The homes of 37% of these children were also flooded. Ninety-five percent of the children experienced at least mild symptoms of PTSD, and 71% had symptoms that were moderate to very severe. Children who reported that their homes were flooded were 3 times more likely to report symptoms than those whose homes were not flooded, and the girls were twice as likely as the boys to report symptoms. The high PTSD prevalence rates are comparable to findings from other studies involving violence in which 94% of the victims reported experiencing symptoms. For further analyses, the authors used symptom clusters of hyperarousal, numbing/avoidance, and reexperiencing symptoms.     

MOTHERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF NEIGHBORHOOD DISORDER ARE ASSOCIATED WITH CHILDREN'S HOME ENVIRONMENT QUALITY

This study examines how low–income mothers' perceptions of their neighborhoods are associated with the home environments they provide for their young children. The connection between neighborhoods and homes is important since they are nested systems that are critical to children's healthy development. Women's perception of their neighborhoods may affect the way they set up their homes and interact with their young children. Given that various women may perceive the same neighborhood differently, this study uses subjective, rather than typical objective measures of neighborhood disadvantage. After controlling for maternal background characteristics, including stress and depression, these data find that the more women perceive their neighborhood to be disordered, the less likely they are to provide high–quality home environments and be responsive to their infants. Establishing a link between neighborhood and home environments is important and illuminates avenues for potentially improving the contexts of young children's lives.     

Homelessness,violence exposure,and school participation among urban adolescent mothers

Using a risk and resilience framework, this exploratory study examines the relationships between homelessness, exposure to multiple types of violence, and school participation within a survey sample of poor adolescent mothers living in an urban setting. Participants who were homeless either currently or historically were compared with participants who had never been homeless in terms of rate of violence exposure and school participation. Social support was analyzed as a moderator of the effects of violence exposure on the odds of homelessness, while positive attitude toward school was assessed as a moderator of homelessness on school participation. Results from MANOVA indicate that participants who report homelessness have significantly higher rates of exposure to violence and significantly lower rates of social support, positive attitude toward school, and school participation in comparison with participants who have never been homeless. Regression analyses indicate that violence exposure, moderated by social support, plays a significant contributing role in participants' odds of ever being homeless. Experiencing homelessness, in turn, is a significant contributor to reduced school participation. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comm Psychol 35: 639–654, 2007.