Risk factors for and behavioral consequences of direct versus indirect exposure to violence

G.M. Zimmerman and C. Posick

American Journal of Public Health, 2016, vol. 106, issue 1, 178-188

Abstract: Research suggests that direct exposure (personal victimization) and indirect exposure (witnessing or hearing about the victimization of a family member, friend, or neighbor) to violence are correlated. However, questions remain about the co-occurrence of these phenomena within individuals. We used data on 1915 youths (with an average age of 12 years at baseline) from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods to examine this issue. Results indicated that youths who tended to be personally victimized were also likely to witness violence; conversely, youths who disproportionately witnessed violence were relatively unlikely to experience personal victimization. In addition, direct and indirect exposures to violence were associated with subsequent adverse outcomes in similar ways. The key distinguishing factor was, rather, the cumulative level of violence (bothdirect and indirect) towhich youthswere exposed.

Keywords: adverse outcome; child; exposure; human; human development; human experiment; juvenile; neighborhood; risk factor; United States; violence; witness; adolescent; adolescent behavior; African American; Child Behavior Disorders; cluster analysis; crime victim; epidemiology; ethnology; exposure to violence; female; Hispanic; Illinois; male; minority group; psychology; risk factor; Social Behavior Disorders; statistics and numerical data; urban population, Adolescent; Adolescent Behavior; African Americans; Chicago; Child; Child Behavior Disorders; Cluster Analysis; Crime Victims; Exposure to Violence; Female; Hispanic Americans; Humans; Male; Minority Groups; Risk Factors; Social Behavior Disorders; Urban Population (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.2105/AJPH.2015.302920

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2015.302920_5

DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2015.302920

Access Statistics for this article

American Journal of Public Health is currently edited by Alfredo Morabia

More articles in American Journal of Public Health from American Public Health Association
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Christopher F Baum ().