Hyperarousal and hypervigilance in African American male adolescents exposed to community violence

Abstract

The current study examined the promotive and protective roles of hyperarousal and hypervigilance for community violence exposure over time in a sample of African American adolescent males. Participants were 135 African American male high school students (Mage = 15.18 years, SD = 0.98). Participants completed measures of exposure to community violence, hyperarousal symptoms, and aggressive behaviors at two time points. Consistent with a promotive role, regression analyses revealed that hypervigilance predicted decreases in witnessing violence, but not victimization, one year later. Analyses using bias-corrected bootstrapping revealed that the effect of physiological hyperarousal on subsequent victimization was moderated by physical aggression. Specifically, hyperarousal significantly predicted decreases in victimization at high, but not low or moderate levels of aggression. Protective models were tested by examining hyperarousal and hypervigilance as moderators of the association between baseline violence exposure and violence exposure one year later. Neither hyperarousal nor hypervigilance were protective factors for subsequent violence exposure.