Date of Award
2024
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
MA in Psychology
Department
Psychology
First Advisor
Melissa Peckins
Second Advisor
Wilson McDermut
Abstract
The present study tested whether total lifetime exposure to violence and exposure as a witness and victim were associated with externalizing behavior concurrently and one-year later in a sample of pubertal-aged youth. Participants included 125 youth (n = 68 girls) who were recruited from small cities and rural communities (Susman et al. 2007). Girls were ages 8, 10, or 12 years old (M = 10.09 years, SD = 1.64) and boys were ages 9, 11, or 13 years old (M = 10.94 years, SD = 1.61). Youth were predominantly Caucasian or White and non-Hispanic (89.5%), but the sample also included Hispanic (3.0%), African American or Black (3.0%), Asian (1.5%), and American Indian (0.7%) youth. Data from the present study come from two timepoints, one year apart. Community violence exposure was assessed at time 1 with the My Exposure to Violence self-report questionnaire (Buka & Selner-O’Hagen, 1998) and externalizing behavior was assessed at times 1 and 3 with the parent-report Child Behavior Checklist (Achenbach & Edelbrock, 1991). Hierarchical regression was performed to test whether total community violence exposure and exposure as a witness and victim were associated with externalizing behavior at times 1 and 3 in separate models. Analyses were also performed to test whether gender moderated the associations and if there was a two-way interaction between violence exposure as a witness and victim. Total exposure to community violence and exposure as a witness were not associated with externalizing behavior at times 1 and 3, and gender did not moderate the associations (p > .05). However, exposure as a victim was positively associated with externalizing behavior at time 1 in girls (b = 2.71, SE = 1.11, p = .02) but not boys (p = .95). Victimization was only positively related to externalizing behavior at time 1 at high levels of witnessed exposure (b = 4.99, SE = 2.02, p = .01). Results suggest that victimization may be a more important predictor of externalizing behavior during puberty, though results should be interpreted with caution due to the low rates of overall exposure in the sample.
Recommended Citation
Avila, Destiny, "COMMUNITY VIOLENCE EXPOSURE AND EXTERNALIZING" (2024). Theses and Dissertations. 770.
https://scholar.stjohns.edu/theses_dissertations/770