Citation

Smith DE, Green KE. Rev. Panam. Salud Publica 2007; 22(6): 417-424.

Affiliation

Department of Child and Family Studies, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, United States of America.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, Organizacion Panamericana de la Salud (PAHO))

DOI

unavailable

PMID

18291061

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to review the relevant literature, describe the existing knowledge regarding aggression and violence among children and youth in the Jamaican context, and evaluate the plausibility of popular assumptions regarding the correlates of aggressive and violent outcomes in Jamaican children and youth. This article assesses the relationship between ecological processes and youth outcomes in Jamaica and is organized in the following manner: the first section addresses the incidence of violence and its impact on society; the next section focuses on the overall conceptual framework and its usefulness in assessing child outcomes in the Jamaican context. Pursuant to that, the individual attributes of violent outcomes are addressed, as well as two levels of the ecological environment: the proximal (near) environment and the distal (far) environment. In the proximal context, the issue of parental involvement is addressed as two separate issues: father absence and mother absence. This is because a substantial number of Jamaican children, historically, have not had "involved" fathers, and recently, the issue of mother absence has featured prominently in the discussions surrounding youth problem behaviors in Jamaica. The final section summarizes the article and discusses implications for policy decision making.

Language: en