Abstract
Available literature identifies the need for a deeper understanding of the role of gender, age and socioeconomic status in children’s exposure to violence and associations with mental health (MH) outcomes. The 1548 participants for this study were enrolled from 28 public charter schools and 9 community-based settings; youth were administered a screener that assessed exposure to traumatic events and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression. Respondents reported extremely high levels of exposure to indirect violence: 41.7% witnessed shooting/stabbing/beating; 18.3% witnessed murder; and 53.8% experienced the murder of someone close. Frequency of adverse MH outcomes was high: 21.2% screened positive for depression; 45.7% for lifetime PTSD; and 26.9% for current PTSD. More males than females reported witnessing shooting/stabbing/beating (p = .04); females more often reported experiencing the murder of someone close (p = .001). Indirect violence exposure generally increased with age. Youth attending schools with ≥90% free/reduced lunch participation (FRLP) showed significantly higher levels of violence exposure compared to youth in schools with <90% FRLP. Females endorsed significantly higher levels of depression (21.4% vs. 9.7%), and lifetime (53.9% vs. 34.9%) and current (32.5% vs. 19.6%) PTSD, compared with males (p < .0001, all comparisons). Female sex (aOR = 2.6), FRLP (aOR = 1.4 for ≥90% vs. <90%) and the number of different indirect violence exposures (aORs from 1.3 to 10.4), were significantly associated with a positive screen for any adverse MH outcome. Our data add important insights into gender heterogeneity of viewed violence, mental health symptoms, and their association—all of which are critical to guiding effective intervention efforts.
Highlights
Large proportions of children in the United States (US) are subject to violence within their homes, schools, and communities [1, 2]
Data gathered in the Emotional Wellness Screener, administered to a sample of 6th to 12th grade students enrolled in New Orleans public schools, demonstrated extremely high levels of indirect violence that agreed with findings from other urban samples of youth [30, 32] and were substantially greater than those reported in national surveys of youth [2], underscoring the importance of focusing on specific populations for intervention efforts
Adverse mental health (MH) symptom prevalence in our population of youth increased proportionately with frequency of different exposures to violence; adjusted analyses confirmed an association with these symptoms
Summary
Large proportions of children in the United States (US) are subject to violence within their homes, schools, and communities [1, 2]. In the 2008 National Survey of Children’s Exposure to Violence, a nationally representative sample of US children ages 0–17 years, 60.6% reported at least one direct victimization and 25.3% reported indirect victimization, in the last year [2]. In a 2013 update [6], the reported proportions of witnessed violence were only slightly lower (22.4%). In a recent U.S Census Bureau study of urban adolescents ages 12–17 years, 55% reported lifetime experience of community violence [7]. In an adolescent sample aged 11–14 years from a Midwest urban school, 75% of youth witnessed hearing or seeing gunfire in their home or neighborhood [9]
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