Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Exposure to community violence and social support as predictors of anxiety and social and emotional behavior among African American children

  • Regular Papers
  • Published:
Journal of Child and Family Studies Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

We examined the effects of exposure to violence and social support on self-reported state and trait anxiety and parental rated problem behaviors among school-aged African-American children in low and high violence areas. Ninety-seven (97) fourth through sixth graders and their parents were interviewed about exposure to community violence, social support, and state and trait anxiety. Results indicate that trait anxiety was correlated positively with exposure to violence and negatively with social support. State anxiety was correlated negatively with family social support. Problem behaviors were correlated negatively with family support and income. Hierarchial multiple regression analyses indicated that children's reports of their exposure to community violence continued to explain significant variability in trait anxiety, and problem behavior after controlling for both income and social support measures. Social support from peers, family and teachers played differential roles in predicting problem behaviors among children from high and lower violence areas. These findings suggest that in planning intervention programs for children exposed to violence, greater attention to empowering parents to support their children, to fostering peer group support, and to bolstering teacher support may be useful, but attention to the underlying socio-political causes of violence exposure is essential.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Bell, C. C., & Jenkins, E.J. (1991)Traumatic stress in children.Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, 1, 175–189.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bell, C. C., & Jenkins, E. J. (1993). Community violence and children on Chicago's southside.Psychiatry, 56, 46–53.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, J., & Cohen, P. (1975).Applied multiple regression/correlation analysis for the behavioral sciences. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Compas, B. E., Slavin, L., Wagner, B. M., & Vannatta, K. (1986). Relationship of life events and social support with psychological dysfunction among adolescents.Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 15, 205–221.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Deluty, R. H. (1981). Alternative-thinking ability of aggressive, assertive and submissive children.Cognitive Therapy and Research, 5, 309–312.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dubrow, N. F., & Garbarino, J. (1989). Living in the war zone: Mothers and young children in a public housing development.Child Welfare, LXVIII, 3–21.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dubow, E., & Tisak, J. (1989). The relation between stressful life events and adjustment in elementary school children: The role of social support and social problem-solving skills.Child Development, 60, 1412–1417.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dubow, E., & Ullman, D. C. (1989). Assessing social support in elementary school children: The survey of children's social support.Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 18, 52–64.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dyson, J. L. (1990). Family violence and its effect on children's academic underachievement and behavior problems in school.Journal of the National Medical Association, 82, 17–22.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Famularo, R., Kinscherff R., & Fenton, T. (1990). Symptom differences in acute and chronic presentation of childhood post traumatic stress disorder.Child Abuse & Neglect, 14, 439–444.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fitzpatrick, K. M. (1994). Exposure to violence and presence of depression among low-income, African-American youth.Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 61, 528–531.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fitzpatrick, K. M., & Boldizer, J. P. (1993). The prevalence and consequences of exposure to violence among African-American youth.Journal of the Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 32, 424–430.

    Google Scholar 

  • Freeman, L. N., Mokros, H., & Poznanski, E. (1993). Violent events reported, by normal urban school-aged children: characteristics and depression correlates.Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 32, 419–423.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Garbarino, J., Kostelny, K., & Dubrow, N. (1991). What children can tell us about living in danger.American Psychologist, 46, 376–383.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Garbarino, J., Dubrow, N., Kostelny, K., Pardo, C. (1992).Children in danger: Coping with the consequences of community violence. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.

    Google Scholar 

  • Garbarino, J. (1993). Children's response to community violence: What do we know?,Infant Mental Health Journal, 14, 103–115.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hawkins, D. (1990). Explaining, the Black homicide rate.Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 5, 151–163.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hightower, A. D., Work, W. C., Cowen, E. L., Lotyczewski, B. S., Spinell, A. P., Guare, J. C. & Rohrbeck, C. A. (1986). The teacher-child rating scale: A brief objective measure of elementary children's school problem behaviors and competences.School Psychology Review, 15, 393–409.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hill, H. M. (1991)Children's Interview on Community Violence. Unpublished manuscript.

  • Hill, H. M. (1991).Parents' Interview on Community Violence. Unpublished manuscript.

  • Hill, H. M. (1994). The impact of community violence on African American children: Reclaiming childhood.Violence Update, 5, 1–10.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hill, H. M., Soriano, F. L., Chen, S. A., & LaFromboise, T. D. (1995). Sociocultural factors in the etiology and prevention of violence among ethnic minority youth. In L. D. Eron, J. H. Gentry, & P. Schlegel (Eds.), A reason to hope:A psychosocial perspective on violence and youth (pp. 59–97). Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hill, R., Billingsley, A., Ingraham, E., Malson, M., Stack, C., Stewart, J. B., & Teele, J. (1989).Research on the African-American family: A holistic assessment of the status of African Americans Vol. 2. Boston: William Monroe Trotter Institute of the University of Massachusetts at Boston.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lorion, R., & Saltzman, W. (1993). Children's exposure to community violence: Following a path from concern to research to action.Psychiatry, 55, 55–65.

    Google Scholar 

  • McLloyd, V. C. (1990). The impact of economic hardship, on Black families and children: Psychological distress, parenting and socioemotional development.Child Development, 61, 311–346.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Luthar, S., & Zigler, E. (1991). Vulnerability and competence: A review of research on resilience in childhood.American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 6, 8–22.

    Google Scholar 

  • Metropolitan Police Department (1993).Office of Evaluation and Planning City-wide Crime Reports. Washington, D.C.: Metropolitan Police Department.

    Google Scholar 

  • Osofsky, J. D., Wewers, S., Hann, D. M., & Fick, A. C. (1993). Chronic community violence: What is happening to our children?Psychiatry, 56, 36–45.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pryor-Brown, L., & Cowen, E. L. (1989). Stressful life events, support, and children's school adjustment.Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 18, 214–220.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pynoos, R. S., & Eth, S. (1984). The child as witness to homicide.Journal of Social Issues 40, 87–108.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pynoos, R. S., Frederick, C., Nader, K., Arroyo, W., Steinberg, A., Eth, S., Nunez, F., & Fairbanks, L. (1987). Life threat and postraumatic stress in school age children.Archives of General Psychiatry, 44, 1057–1063.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pynoos, R. S., & Nader, K. (1988). Children's memory and proximity to violence.Journal of the American Academy of Clinical Adolescent Psychiatry, 28, 236–241.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pynoos, R. S., & Nader, K. (1990). Children's exposure to violence and traumatic death.Psychiatric Annals, 20, 334–344.

    Google Scholar 

  • Quay, H. C., & Peterson, D. R. (1983).Interim manual for the Revised Behavior Problem Checklist. University of Miami Coral Cables, FL.

    Google Scholar 

  • Richters, J. E., & Martinez, P. (1993). The NIMH community violence project: Children as victims of and witness to violence.Psychiatry, 56, 7–21.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Shakoor, B. H., & Chalmers, D. (1991). Co-victimization of African-American children who witness violence: Effects on cognitive, emotional and behavioral development.Journal of the National Medical Association, 83, 233–238.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Singer, M. I., Anglin, T. M., Sung, L. Y., & Longhofer, L. (1995). Adolescent's exposure to violence and associated symptoms of psychological trauma.Journal of the American Medical Association 273, 477–482.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Speilberger, C., Edwards, C. D., Lushene, R.E., Mountuori, J., & Platzek, D. (1973).STAIC Preliminary Manual: The stait-trait anxiety inventory for children. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologist Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Strauss, C., Lease, C., Kazdin, A., Dulcan, M., & Last, C. (1989). Multimethod assessment of the social competence of children with anxiety disorder.Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 18, 184–189.

    Google Scholar 

  • Terr, L. C. (1991). Childhood Traumas: An outline and overview.American Journal of Psychiatry, 148, 1, 10–20.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, A. N. (1990).Black on black violence. Afrikan World: Info Systems.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Safe Start Program, Department of Psychology, Center for Research on the Education of Students Placed at Risk, Howard University, 525 Bryant Street, N.W., 20059, Washington DC

    Hope M. Hill Ph.D. (Associate Professor), Monique Levermore M.A. (Graduate Student) & Lauren P. Jones Ph.D. (Research Director)

  2. New York, New York

    James Twaite Ph.D. (Psychologist in priyate practice, Private Practioner)

Authors
  1. Hope M. Hill Ph.D.
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Monique Levermore M.A.
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. James Twaite Ph.D.
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Lauren P. Jones Ph.D.
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Hill, H.M., Levermore, M., Twaite, J. et al. Exposure to community violence and social support as predictors of anxiety and social and emotional behavior among African American children. J Child Fam Stud 5, 399–414 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02233862

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02233862

Key Words

Search

Navigation