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Abstract
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OBJECTIVE: To examine levels of violence exposure and reports of feeling unsafe in relation to psychological and behavioral characteristics for a general population sample of youths from an urban setting. METHOD: A comprehensive survey of high-risk behaviors, attitudes, indicators of adaptive behavior, and daily involvements was administered to a sample of 2,248 students in the 6th, 8th, and 10th grades in an urban public school system. RESULTS: More than 40% of the youths surveyed reported exposure to a shooting or stabbing in the past year, and 74% reported feeling unsafe in one or more common environmental contexts. Multiple regression analyses indicated significant relationships between violence exposure/feeling unsafe and a set of indicators of psychological and behavioral adaptation and expressed attitudes. CONCLUSIONS: These results attest to the picture of violence as a common fact of inner-city life and to the demand that is placed on urban youths to accommodate in their psychological development to chronic threat and lack of safety.
VioLit summary:
OBJECTIVE:
The aim of the study by Schwab-Stone et al. was to investigate the psychological and behavioral characteristics of urban youth in relation to violence exposure and feelings of safety.
METHODOLOGY:
The authors conducted a quasi-experimental, cross-sectional analysis of data collected from 2,248 6th, 8th and 10th grade students attending urban district schools. The ethnic composition of the sample consisted of African-American, Hispanic and Caucasian students. The authors reported that 54.8% of the sample were female. 53.9% of the students lived in two parent households, 39.4% lived with one parent.
The authors stated that a survey was administered by research or school personnel to students attending 142 classes at the 17 participating schools. The authors utilized the Social and Health Assessment measure (Weissberg et al., 1991), a 182 item instrument designed to measure middle and high school students' high risk behaviors, and positive community and school interests. The authors utilized survey items that addressed students' exposure to violence, feelings of safety, and the association between these factors and various measures of school and psychological functioning. Indicators of risk included an item that addressed violence exposure; "During the past year how many times have you seen someone get shot or stabbed?" Frequency of violence exposure was measured using a five point likert scale. Three groups of exposure levels were derived. These included no exposure, moderate exposure and high exposure. Feelings of safety were measured by assessing four spheres of student life. These included: "I feel safe in my home"; "...in my neighborhood"; "...at my school"; "...on the school bus or while walking to school."
The authors organized three categories of feelings of safety according to the number of contexts in which respondents said they felt unsafe. The three categories consisted of those feeling safe in all four contexts, those feeling unsafe in one or two contexts and those feeling unsafe in three or four of the environments. Student attitudes were measured along three dimensions. These included "Willingness to use physical aggression" if respondent had been insulted, had an insulted family member, had something stolen and had been hit. Four items from the National Adolescent Student Health Survey (American School Health Association, 1990) were utilized. Cronbach's alpha was .76. "Diminished Perception of Risk Taking" addressed how much students believed that others their age would risk harming themselves. Criteria included substance use, carrying guns, fighting, ditching school, and other similar criteria. Four items were taken from the Monitoring the Future Scale (Johnston et al., 1990) and six items were developed by the authors. Likert scale format was utilized and ranged from 1 = no risk, to 4 = great risk. Cronbach's alpha was .85. Expectations about the future were assessed using 5 of 10 items from Jessor's Expectations of Goal Attainment Scale (Jessor et al., 1989). Items included "What are the chances that you will graduate from high school?"; "...that you will go to college?"; "...that you will have a job that pays well?"; "...will have a happy family life; and "...will stay in good health most of the time?" Cronbach's alpha was .76. Adaptation was measured along four dimensions. Depressed mood and anxiety was assessed with items adapted from a survey by Jessor et al. (1989). They included: "Have you just felt really down about things?"; "...depressed about life in general?"; and "Have you spent a lot of time worrying about little things?" A four point scale ranged from 1 = not at all, to 4 = a lot. Cronbach's alpha was .74. A seven item scale was developed based on Jessor's Delinquent-Type Behavior scale (three items) (Jessor et al., 1989), the National Adolescent Student Health Survey (one item) (American School Health Association, 1990) and the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (one item) (Centers for Disease Control, 1991) to measure aggression and antisocial activities (e.g., fighting, arrest, vandalism, theft, carrying a gun). Cronbach's alpha was .76. Frequency and type of alcohol used over the previous 30 days were assessed using a four item scale obtained from the Monitoring the Future Scale (Johnston et al., 1990). Cronbach's alpha was .82. Two items measured academic achievement; one asked if a grade had been repeated, the other asked for grade status. Respondents' mean z scores served as a measure of school achievement.
The authors conducted chi square analyses, one-way ANOVAS, and multiple hierarchical regression analyses to evaluate the data.
FINDINGS/DISCUSSION:
The authors found that 41.3% of students reported that they had seen one or more shootings or stabbings in the past year. Males reported significantly greater violence exposure than females F(1,2199)=25.68, p< .0001). Violence exposure rates were greater among 8th graders than other grades, F(2,2198)=10.98, p<.0001, and was greater for ethnic minorities F(2,2198)=39.55, p<.0001. Those students from low socioeconomic status (SES) self-reported greater levels of violence exposure, F(1,2199)=19.03, p<.0001. 52% of students stated that they felt unsafe in one or two contexts, 21% reported unsafe feelings in three or all four contexts. 8th and 10th graders reported greater levels of feeling unsafe compared with 6th graders. Ethnic minority students felt more unsafe than Caucasian students. Low SES students reported feeling less safe than high SES, F(1,2245)=5.67, p<.02. The authors found that violence exposure and feeling unsafe were correlated (r=.19, p<.001). The authors stated that students who had reported committing violence also reported significantly higher levels of violence exposure, F(1,2191)=382.21, p<.0001. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were carried out to evaluate ecological predictors of adjustment and attitudes. The authors found that males were: 1) more willing to use physical aggression relative to females, 2) more diminished perception of risk from high-risk behaviors, and 3) had lower expectations for the future. 8th graders were found to be more willing to use physical aggression compared with 10th graders, and had greater expectations for future prospects. African-americans were more willing to use aggression compared with Caucasian students. Caucasian students reported higher future expectations. The authors reported that feeling unsafe and exposure to violence significantly predicted acquiescence to use physical violence (11% of the variance was accounted for). Violence exposure plus feeling safe significantly predicted a diminished perception of risk (3.4%). Personal future expectations accounted for 6.7% of the variance. The authors found that violence exposure and feeling unsafe significantly predicted: self-reports of depressed/anxious mood (8.4% of the variance was accounted for); participation in aggressive/antisocial activities (27.5% of the variance); alcohol use (9% of the variance); school achievement (11.5% of the variance).
In conclusion the authors stated that, overall, exposure to violence and feeling unsafe accounted for a large proportion of the variance in predicting aggressive/antisocial involvement. The authors reported that violence exposure was a high predictor of four aspects of social and personal adjustment. Depressed/anxious mood, aggressive/antisocial behavior and lower academic achievement were all significantly associated with feeling unsafe.
AUTHORS' RECOMMENDATIONS:
The authors suggested that the collection of future data on psychological and behavioral outcomes of violence exposure will enable a more thorough examination of its effects on feeling unsafe.
(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)
Child Witness
Juvenile Witness
Exposure to Violence
Community Violence Effects
Witnessing Community Violence
Witnessing Violence Effects
Community Violence Effects
Child Adjustment
Juvenile Adjustment
Elementary School Student
Grade 6
Grade 8
Grade 10
Junior High School Student
Senior High School Student
Early Adolescence
Late Adolescence
Late Childhood
Urban Youth
Urban Environment
Urban Violence
Psychological Victimization Effects
Language: en |