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Abstract
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VioLit summary:
OBJECTIVE:
The aim of this study by Richters and Martinez was to examine children's exposure to community violence, quality of home life, and how these relate to, and whether they can predict, adaptational success or failure among children.
METHODOLOGY:
The authors conducted a quasi-experimental primary analysis of cross-sectional data. These data were collected from 72 african-american elementary school children, living in a moderately violent, low income neighborhood in the south-eastern part of Washington D.C. The number of boys and girls was equally proportioned. The children included in this study were participants in a larger study being conducted by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH); the Community Violence Project. For the purpose of examining the effects of community violence and quality of home life on child development, measures of children's exposure to violence and distress symptoms associated with violence exposure were obtained from the children and their parents. Teacher ratings of overall academic achievement were also obtained. The authors reported that almost half the parents in the study had completed high school (44%), approximately one third had completed some college or equivalent (34%), and almost one quarter had completed only grade school (22%). Approximately one half of parents worked full-time (52%). Of the remaining parents, 31% were unemployed and 17% were employed part-time. Parents median income was $15,000; almost one quarter were receiving some welfare assistance (24%). 13% of parents were currently married and almost half had never been married (47%). The authors stated that more than half the children's fathers were rarely or never at home (59%). Almost one quarter of fathers were present in the home all of the time (23%). The authors reported that since there was a non-significant trend toward higher levels of teacher-rated behavior problems among children from non-participating families, study results may be slightly skewed and more representative of higher functioning children.
The authors asked teachers who were involved in the study to contact the parents and ask for their joint participation with their children. Parents were interviewed and assessment batteries were either completed orally, or written, depending upon parents' literacy levels. The children were interviewed during school hours in small groups. Following parent and child participation, teachers completed their evaluations of each child's academic achievement and quality of home life. Study measures completed by parents included the parent report version of the Survey of Children's Exposure to Community Violence (Richters & Saltzman, 1990) and the Conflict Tactics Scales (Straus, 1979). The Survey of Children's Exposure to Community Violence assessed how often a child had witnessed, been victimized by, or had heard, approximately 20 different types of violence and violence related incidents in the community. Context questions for each positive response included: a) place of violence (home vs. in or around school), b) perpetrator of violence (ranging from stranger to family member), c) person victimized, if not the child (ranging from stranger to family member), and d) when incident occurred (ranged from 1 week ago to over 5 years ago). The measure of the extent of community violence exposure consisted of a summation of all incidents of violence. The Conflict Tactics Scales assessed within-family violence between adults. Further measures completed by parents included questionnaires which solicited family history composition and demographic characteristics. To gauge children's behavior problems, parents also completed the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) (Achenbach & Edelbrock, 1983). The children participated in two age appropriate interviews. Firstly, children were interviewed in small groups and asked to rate cartoons that expressed symptom manifestations of depression, fear, anxiety and intrusive thoughts. This interview was reported to be based on work by Valla (1989) which was aimed at measuring children's distress symptoms. The authors reported one week test-retest reliability, r=.81. Second, the children completed a 15 item, structured interview, 'Things I Have Seen and Heard' (Richters & Martinez, 1990). This instrument probed children about how often they had been exposed to violence and violence related topics. One week test-retest reliability was reported as r=.81. Teachers completed the Teacher Observation of Classroom Adaptation - Revised instrument (TOCA-R) (Werthamer-Larsson, Kellan, Dolan, Brown, & Wheeler, 1990). 43 internalizing and externalizing behavior problems of children were rated by the teachers using a 6 point Likert scale which reflected the rates of problematic behavior. Children's overall academic achievement, ranging from excellent to failing, was also measured using 6 point Likert scales. Finally, teachers were asked to rate the degree to which each child's home was stable. The authors stated that details of each of the above measures have been previously listed by Martinez and Richters (1993) and Richters and Martinez (1993).
The authors reported that children's maladaptation indexes included: 1) teacher ratings of children's school conduct in the range of poor to failing, and 2) clinically deviant behavior as rated by parents. The authors focused upon children who were already showing signs of adaptational success or failure in their first 2 years of school. The authors expected that they would be able to discriminate between children's adaptive and maladaptive responses to exposure to violence.
FINDINGS/DISCUSSION:
The authors reported that the children in the current sample resided in neighborhoods in which high violence levels existed. The authors categorized success and failure into two domains. 1) Social-emotional functioning, which consisted of parents ratings of children's problem behavior on the Child Behavior Checklist. Children's adaptation was categorized as successful if their problem behavior t scores fell within the normal range (64%), and failing if their t scores fell into the other range of 36%. 2) Academic functioning, which was based on teacher ratings of each child's overall academic progress. Children were classified as successfully adapting if academic functioning occurred within the normal to excellent range (72%), and as failing if their grades were in the range of poor to failing (28%). These ratings were used by the authors to devise an adaptational failure score based on how many domains a child was failing in (0-2). The authors reported that adaptational failing scores correlated with the sum of each child's z score on the Child Behavior Checklist and teachers' academic ratings, r(72)=.84, p<.001. The authors found that parent-rated child behavior problems and teacher-rated academic achievement correlated moderately, r(72)=.38, p<.001. The authors reported that 54% of children were succeeding in both domains, 26% were failing in one domain, and 20% were failing in both. For those who were failing in one domain, the majority (68%) were succeeding academically but not socially-emotionally. 32% of the children were within the normal range on the Child Behavior Checklist, but were failing as students.
The authors conducted hierarchical multiple regression analyses to determine how community violence exposure and family factors contributed towards a child's adaptational failure. Predictor variables consisted of 1) mother-ratings of children's community violence exposure, 2) children's self-ratings of community violence exposure, 3) teacher-ratings of children's home stability, and 4) a dummy factor reflective of a child's exposure to guns or drugs in the home. The authors found that community violence exposure, as rated by the children or mothers, was not significantly related to children's adaptational failure. However, teacher ratings of home stability did significantly predict an adaptational failure score, r squared change =.11, F(1,70)=9.42, p<.01. Witnessing guns and/or drugs in the home was also significantly predictive of adaptational failure (r squared change =.11, F(1,71)=10.04, p<.01). The authors reported that 21% of adjusted variance in children's adaptational failure scores could be accounted for by these two factors. The authors reported an interactional trend toward greater adaptational failure among children who had witnessed guns and/or drugs in the home, and lived in unstable homes (r squared increment =.03, F(1,71)=3.24, p=.07).
23.6% of the family environments of the children in the study were classified as unstable according to teacher ratings of home stability and violence. Based on children's reports of witnessing guns and/or drugs in the home, 36% of families were categorized as unsafe. The authors found that the chances of failing in both the social-emotional and academic domains rose systematically if children lived in homes categorized as unsafe and/or unstable, chi squared(6)=25.78, p<.001. The authors reported that only 5.9% of children living in safe and stable homes were classified as adaptationally failing. For children belonging in homes that were either unsafe or unstable, the chances of adaptational failure increased to approximately 21%, and for those children living in both unstable and unsafe homes, the probability of adaptational failure increased to 100%. Full adaptational success was found among the majority of children living in safe , stable homes. Adaptational success reduced to 48%-50% for those children from homes either unsafe or unstable, and decreased to 0% for those children from both unsafe and unstable homes.
The authors considered the possibility that their results could have been a function of teachers' assumptions concerning the status of these children's homes. Tests revealed that teachers' family instability ratings were significantly related to lower family income levels, r(72)=.33, p<.01; frequent family moves over the past 5 years, r(72)=.25, p<.05; greater levels of father absence, r(69)=.31, p<.01, and living with relatives, r(72)=.24, p<.05. The authors found a significant relationship between a tally of the above risk factors, including welfare status, low caretaker education and unwed caretaker, and teachers ratings of stability in the home, r(72)=.31, p<.01. The authors reported that a stepwise regression analysis revealed that 22% of the variance was accounted for by these risk factors, multi-r=.47, adj r squared =.18, F(3,68)=6.37, p<.001.
The authors contended that even when there was an accumulation of environmental risk factors, the majority of families (63%) were still rated by teachers as stable. The authors also found that teachers tended to rate the homes of failing children as unstable only when there was a basis for this instability attribution; only 40% of the 20 children rated as failing academically were also stated to be living in unstable homes. The authors also explored the possibility that failing children may have misinterpreted questions related to drug and/or guns exposure, or had a tendency to exaggerate. The authors found that children's reports correlated significantly with parental reports of frequency with which their children heard of others carrying illegal weapons, r(72)=.29, p<.01. Additionally, there was a significant correlation between child reports of having seen drugs and parental reports of having heard of, r(72)=.29, p<.05; or seen r(72)=.24, p<.05, others carrying weapons. The authors argued that children's reports appeared legitimate. Children who reported higher levels of threats or victimization also reported seeing more guns and/or drugs in the home compared with other children (t(68)=4.85, p<.01). Yet they did not report witnessing more violence compared with others. Further, the authors stated that children's self-reported fear at home was strongly correlated with self-reports of having been threatened or victimized, r(66)=.53, p.001. Guns and/or drugs in the home were also significantly related to children's reports of fear in the home, r(70)=.31, and r(70)=.24, p<.05, respectively.
The authors stated that children's adaptational success or failure chances were systematically related to the safety and stability of their homes and that exposure to community violence was not significantly related to failure or success. It was suggested that, since their study was a cross-sectional design, caution with interpretation should be taken.
The authors concluded that, firstly, adaptational failure among children living in multi-disadvantaged environments appeared to be the exception rather than the rule. Second, factors associated with a child's adaptational success or failure would almost always be associated with family characteristics.
(CSPV Abstract - Copyright © 1992-2007 by the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, Institute of Behavioral Science, Regents of the University of Colorado)
Family Relations
Family Risk Factors
Family Protective Factors
Resiliency
Child Development
Child Witness
Family Environment
Environmental Factors
Exposuret to Violence
Child Behavior
Child Problem Behavior
Behavior Causes
Behavior Risk Factors
Witnessing Community Violence
Witnessing Violence Effects
District of Columbia
African American Child
African American Witness
School Performance
School Achievement
School Failure
Child Adjustment
Witness Adjustment
Emotional Adjustment
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