While ample research examines community violence as a serious public health problem that disproportionately affects minority adolescents, less attention focuses on adolescents' experiences of gender‐based harassment in poor, urban neighborhoods. Using data from 416 urban, low‐income Latino/a adolescents (53% female; Mage = 15.5), this study examined (a) the relations between community violence exposure (CVE), gender‐based harassment, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and (b) the role of parent–child cohesion as a moderator of the relations between CVE/harassment and PTSD symptoms. Whereas both CVE and gender‐based harassment were associated with greater PTSD symptoms, the effect of gender‐based harassment on PTSD symptoms was far greater than the effect of community violence. Additionally, the association between gender‐based harassment and PTSD symptoms was exacerbated when parent–child cohesion was high, compared to when cohesion was low or average. Finally, Latino/a adolescents exposed to high levels of both CVE and gender‐based harassment had worse PTSD symptoms compared to those exposed primarily to gender‐based harassment, who in turn had worse PTSD symptoms than those exposed primarily to community violence. Findings highlight the importance of including adolescents' experiences with gender‐based harassment when studying community violence.
Community violence has been identified as a pressing public health crisis in the United States. A wealth of research establishes robust connections between youth's exposure to community violence and an array of negative psychological outcomes.In this article, we argue that developmental scientists need to adopt a more expansive definition of community violence and use a broader range of approaches to understand and intervene in the current epidemic of violence. First, we discuss problems with definitions of community violence in research and propose several types of violent incidents that should no longer be excluded (i.e., gender-based harassment, sexual assault). We also highlight the need for a more nuanced and thorough examination of the dimensions associated with community violence (e.g., severity, physical proximity, relational proximity, chronicity). Next, we discuss methodological problems encumbering research on community violence. Finally, we propose recommendations for research, emphasizing the need to account for children's intersecting social identities.
This study examines whether Latina/o adolescents assess perceived discrimination as being due to distinct subgroups of intersecting social identities. In addition, we examined the relations between subgroups of perceived discrimination and depressive symptoms and externalizing behaviors. This study utilizes intersectional and person-centered approaches with a sample of 320 Latina/o adolescents (M age = 15.6; 55% female) who were attending two midwestern high schools. An exploratory latent class analysis of attributions of perceived discrimination revealed a 3-class solution characterized as: Single Attribution (55%), Few Attributions (34%), and Many Intersectional Attributions (10%). The classes were differentiated by the number of social identities students attributed to their discriminatory experiences. Participants in the Single Attribution class attributed their perceived discrimination to an average of one social identity, and those in the Many Intersectional Attributions made attributions to seven social identities on average. Further, a greater number of social identities to which adolescents attributed perceived discrimination was associated with increased depressive symptoms and externalizing behaviors. Findings underscore the importance of accounting for adolescents' multiple social identities when investigating how discriminatory and oppressive systems influence Latina/o youth.
Public Significance StatementLittle is known about the intersection of multiple sources of discrimination and its relation to Latina/o adolescents' well-being. Findings from this study revealed that Latina/o adolescents attributed their discrimination experiences to multiple oppressed social identities, with the associations to depressive symptoms and externalizing behaviors increasing as their attributions increased.
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