Are Chronic Exposure To Violence and Chronic Violent Behavior Closely Related Developmental Processes During Adolescence?

Abstract

Five waves of longitudinal data from a sample of minority youth living in extreme poverty were used to examine the impact of chronic exposure to violence on chronic violent behavior. Given the rapid rate of developmental change during adolescence and the lack of multiyear studies of exposure to violence, semiparametric group-based modeling was used to identify trajectories of chronic exposure to violence (7% of youth), chronic violent victimization (9% of youth), chronic vicarious victimization (39% of youth), and chronic violent behavior (12% of youth). The multivariate findings revealed that (a) youth with chronic exposure to violence were 3,150% (or 31.5 times) more likely to engage in chronic violent behavior and (b) chronic vicarious victimization was a significant predictor of chronic violent behavior, after controlling for the effects of chronic violent victimization. The theoretical and policy implications of these findings as well as areas for future research are discussed.

Associations between Gun Violence Exposure, Gang Associations, and Youth Aggression: Implications for Prevention and Intervention Programs

“…The considerable variability in victimization and perpetration among youth living in high risk settings suggests that some children have greater internal and external sources of resilience that promote the adoption of behavioral patterns that facilitate greater adaptability in distressed neighborhood contexts [55]. Because lower social self-control was associated with both girls' and boys' aggression, promoting social selfregulation to mitigate the risk of personal injury in neighborhood contexts that challenge inter-and intrapersonal development requires further investigation.…”

Is the Nexus of Gang Membership, Exposure to Violence, and Violent Behavior a Key Determinant of First Time Gun Carrying for Urban Minority Youth?

“…Thornberry et al (2003) applied the developmental perspective to gangs and argued that developmental trajectories interlock over time. As a result, future research should determine the impact of stable gang membership, chronic exposure to violence, and chronic violent behavior on persistent gun carrying by inner city minority youth (Spano et al, 2010;Stein, Jaycox, Kataoka, Rhodes, & Vestal, 2003).…”

“…In short, first-time gun carrying is used to bridge the gap between research and public health initiatives focused on the primary prevention of youth gun violence (Spano, Rivera, & Bolland, 2010). The intersection of risk in the nexus 1 of gang membership, exposure to violence, and violent behavior on youth gun carrying represents a convergence of these three distinct aspects of violence in high-poverty settings that converge on a small number of youth are at increased risk for gun carrying.…”

A Dynamic and Gender Sensitive Understanding of Adolescents’ Personal and School Resilience Characteristics Despite Family Violence: The Predictive Power of the Family Violence Burden Level

“…While not engaging in the ongoing methodological and philosophical discussion about whether causality really exists in social sciences (Mackie, 1974(Mackie, , 1965(Mackie, /1993Maruyama, 1997;Waldmann & Hagmayer, 2006), we still note that longitudinal studies (Sousa et al, 2011;Spano, Rivera, & Bolland, 2010) have concluded that there is a reciprocal relationship between violence in adolescence and parental physical abuse. These "coercive cycles" (Leadbeater, Boone, Sangster, & Mathieson, 2006) seem to be well established and our work confirms that and adds to the discussion the notion that different forms of family abuse can also have different effects on the resilience level of the adolescents who are subjected to such abuse.…”