Assessing Adult Exposure to Community Violence

Abstract

Although multiple measures demonstrated limited but acceptable psychometric performance in select studies, few in-depth psychometric analyses exist for measures of adult exposure to community violence. Also, it is difficult to compare studies due to variations in definitions of community violence and multiple versions of each measure. Recommendations for future research include provision of explicit definitions of community violence and reporting psychometric data for measures.

Addressing Crime, Violence, and Other Determinants of Health through Community‐Based Participatory Research and Implementation Science

“…Community crime and violence impacts residents both directly (i.e., personal victimization or property crime) and indirectly (i.e., witnessing and/or hearing about community members being victimized or property crimes taking place; DeCou & Lynch, 2017; Hartinger‐Saunders et al, 2012). Both direct and indirect community crime/violence are considered serious public health issues and can negatively impact residents’ mental and physical health (Krug et al, 2002; Weisburd et al, 2018).…”

The lifetime prevalence of exposure to community violence among Lebanese university students: association with behavioural and mental health correlates

“…The overall prevalence of witnessing CV and CV victimization was 70.3% and 49.1%, respectively. Comparing prevalence rates of CVE is challenging due to the variations in its definitions and the limited number of studies that investigated CVE in adults (DeCou & Lynch, 2017). The prevalence estimates of CVE among Lebanese university students appear lower than that reported by a similar study conducted among university students in the United States.…”

Does Employment-Related Resilience Affect the Relationship between Childhood Adversity, Community Violence, and Depression?

“…Questions assess different types of violence, including: BHow many times have you yourself actually been shot with a gun?^, BHow often have you seen someone else get shot with a gun?,^and BHow many times have you actually seen someone being killed by another person?^Each question is answered on an eight-point Likert scale ranging from Bnever^(0) to Balmost every day (8), where a higher score indicates higher exposure. Most researchers studying adult violence exposure use modified versions of children's scales; SECV-SR is currently the most widely used survey for measuring adult violence exposure and has acceptable to excellent internal consistency in diverse samples, including with African-American single mothers [50,51].…”