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Abstract
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The rising tide of violence in American cities has placed the causes and consequences of violence squarely on the public health agenda. The U.S. Government's Year 2000 National Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Objectives includes a full chapter devoted to violence issues and delineates a number of goals and programs aimed at reducing the number of deaths and injuries associated with violence (Public Health Service 1990). Notably absent from these objectives, however, is attention to the possible adverse psychological consequences of exposure to acute or chronic violence. Nonetheless, in light of numerous media reports of children's exposure to community violence and recent reports documenting high levels of exposure even among very young children (Richters and Martinez 1993), it is reasonable to question whether the risks of exposure extend beyond death and physical injury to psychological well-being.
VioLit summary:
OBJECTIVE:
The goal of this study by Martinez and Richters was to investigate the psychological consequences of exposure to acute or chronic violence on children.
METHODOLOGY:
A quasi-experimental, cross-sectional design was used in this study. The sample included 165 children, aged 6 to 10 years, from one elementary school in a moderately violent urban area. Their parents were also included in this study. The participants were self-selected and monetarily compensated. Parents completed a Checklist of Child Distress Symptoms (CCDS) questionnaire, which included 28 symptom descriptions, each with a Likert scale response format, with symptom presence rated on a 1-4 scale (1=never, 4=a lot of the time). They also completed a Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), which covered behavior problems in children, and a Survey of Childrens Exposure to Community Violence, which concerned details of the childrens exposure to violence in their neighborhoods. The first and second grade children were interviewed in small groups. The researchers used a cartoon-based interview, using a fictional character in various scenarios, to measure distress symptoms. The fifth and sixth graders completed the self-report version of the Checklist of Child Distress Symptoms (CCDS), the self-report version of the Survey of Childrens Exposure to Community Violence, and the Child Depression Inventory, a measure of childrens self-reported depressive symptoms.
FINDINGS/DISCUSSION:
The first and second grade children had parent-child agreement on relative levels of childrens symptoms (p<.01). Girls in these grades had higher depression, anxiety, and sleep problems, compared to boys (p=.05). For the fifth and sixth graders, the parent-child agreement was significant for boys (p<.01) but not for girls. Younger childrens reports of their victimization by violence were significantly related to their overall self-ratings of distress symptoms (p<.01) and childrens reports of witnessing violence in the community were also associated with higher self-ratings of overall distress (p<.01). Childrens ratings of how often they had seen guns or drugs in their homes were significantly associated with overall distress, fear while at school, and fear at home (p<.01). The exposure-distress link was significantly stronger for all children of parents who had not graduated from high school. For the fifth and sixth graders, the children overall reported significantly higher levels of depression and anxiety symptoms than their parents reported about them (p<.01). Older childrens reports of victimization by and witnessing violence involving persons known to them were significantly related to their self-reports of distress and depression (p<.05). Children with the highest levels of self-reported distress were more likely to have witnessed drug deals (p<.01), people being arrested (p<.05), someone being slapped, punched, or hit by a family member (p<.01), and someone carrying an illegal weapon (p<.05). Parents from the most violent homes were significantly less likely to agree with their children about their childrens distress symptoms.
AUTHORS' RECOMMENDATIONS:
The authors recommended that researchers interview children directly in attempts to assess their reactions to violent events, in light of the findings showing great parent-child discrepancies. They felt children as young as six can discuss their feelings about violence, and give information that is unavailable from their parents. Special attention should be given in future longitudinal studies for boys who brag and boast during a developmental bravado stage and thus deny the anxiety and fear from violence. In addition, the authors felt that this data highlighted the need for intervention programs in high-risk neighborhoods to enable children to talk about their distress and to help parents recognize the symptoms of distress. Attention should be given in future research to the possibility that the childrens symptoms preceded the violence, in that maladjustment could lead to more violence exposure. Finally, future studies should develop strategies for distinguishing between reactions to violence that are adaptive, the healthy emotional response to loss and pain, and maladaptive, the reactions with negative long-term consequences for normal social, emotional, and cognitive development.
(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
Witnessing Community Violence
Witnessing Violence Effects
Exposure to Violence
Child Development
Youth Development
Psychological Victimization Effects
Middle Childhood
Late Childhood
Urban Violence
Urban Environment
Urban Violence
Child Adjustment
Witness Adjustment
Child Depression
Depression Causes
Language: en |