Growing up under the gun: Children and adolescents coping with violent neighborhoods

Abstract

Inner-city children are exposed to an environment fraught with violence. They are frequent victims of violence and even more frequent witnesses of violence. Exposure to violence can provoke a variety of responses in exposed children such as crying, tremors, withdrawal, etc. In addition to causing such acute stress reactions, exposure to violence can result in more lasting symptoms—including sleep disturbances, nightmares, anxiety, depression, and recurrent intrusive memories of the traumatic event. In many of these children such symptoms occur in combination and persist for long enough to justify a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder. Children are most likely to cope successfully with community violence if they have an internal locus of control, a strong sense of self-efficacy, and an optimistic and planful attitude toward the future. Parental support is particularly important in helping children to cope with stress. Professional interventions in the family and school can help children to cope with such trauma. Such interventions attempt to help children to cope with violent situations by construing the situations in positive ways, by working toward attainable goals and by not allowing them to be overwhelmed by their fear and frustration, thus preventing the trauma from permanently affecting them.