Exposure to violence (ETV) poses a serious threat to adolescents' safety and well-being; however, some adolescents who grow up in such toxic environments are able to thrive due to a combination of internal and external characteristics. The current study examines the role of cohesion across contexts (i.e., family, school, and community) as moderating the relation between ETV and positive internal outcomes characteristic of resilient youth (i.e., ethnic identity, positive affect, and self-esteem) in a sample of low-income, urban, African American adolescents (N = 269, 60% female) from seventh grade to eighth grade. Results indicated that greater cohesion in each context was directly related to more positive outcomes. Family and neighborhood cohesion additionally served as protective enhancing factors

Objective: The traditional use of retrospective self-report to measure exposure to community violence over long periods of time has limitations overcome by an approach described here. This article explores an innovative approach in assessing community violence exposure with time-sampling methodology, where reporting occurs within daily accounts to provide a more immediate measure of community violence exposure. Method: Data were collected over 1 week from 169 urban African American young adolescents (M age = 11.7 years, SD = .70, 62% female) using questionnaires and the Daily Sampling Method, a diary technique that captures a child’s daily accounts of community violence exposure (DCVE). Results: Analyses revealed youth experienced 841 total violent incidents, or close to 1 daily incident per youth for the week. As expected, the majority of incidents occurred between 3 p.m. and 8 p.m., and in public settings. Unexpectedly, higher rates of both victimization and witnessing occurred during weekdays compared with weekend days, and girls reported significantly more DCVE than boys. The DCVE provide a unique glimpse into the more immediate experience of life in high-risk neighborhoods. Conclusion: This study underscores the need to measure DCVE in ways that address the daily experience of youth living in high-risk environments. By identifying timing and location of exposure, we can develop interventions to keep youth safer from violence exposure.

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Parental monitoring and warmth have traditionally been studied in the context of White, middle-class families. This article explores optimal levels of these parenting behaviors in preventing adolescent psychopathology in impoverished, urban high-crime areas while accounting for child perceptions of neighborhood danger. In this study, data were collected longitudinally at 2 time points 1 year apart from a sample of 254 African American young adolescents (T1: M age = 12.6 years, 41% male) and their parents. Parental monitoring and warmth, child perception of neighborhood danger, and child internalizing and externalizing behaviors were measured using questionnaires. Child internalizing behaviors were also measured using a time sampling technique capturing in vivo accounts of daily distress. Findings indicated associations between parental monitoring and children's externalizing behaviors along with linear and quadratic associations between parental monitoring and internalizing behaviors. Monitoring and warmth were differentially related to symptoms depending on neighborhood danger level. When children perceived less danger, more monitoring related to less externalizing. When children perceived more danger, more warmth related to less internalizing. In addition, adolescents' perceptions of neighborhood danger emerged as equally strong as monitoring and warmth in predicting symptoms. This study underscores the influence of carefully considering parenting approaches and which techniques optimally prevent adolescents' externalizing, as well as prevent internalizing difficulties. It also highlights how context affects mental health, specifically how perceptions of danger negatively influence adolescents' psychopathology, emphasizing the importance of initiatives to reduce violence in communities.