Community Violence Victimization Research Articles

Communal Riots and Its Psychological Impact: A Systematic Review Study in Indian Context.

In the Indian setting, communal riots characterized by intergroup violence have been common and have had an impact on the lives of both people and communities. The goal of this systematic review is to investigate the psychological effects of Indian communal riots in depth. Through a comprehensive review of the literature, the study aims to identify recurring themes, patterns, and variances in the psychological effects encountered by victims of community violence. The researcher searched Science Direct, PubMed, Web of Science, Google Scholar, and PsycINFO for research published between the year 2000 and the year 2022 in each of these databases. The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale was employed to evaluate the study's quality. After identifying 1189 publications in all, 195 of them were chosen for full-text examination, and 41 research were ultimately included. Twenty studies examined depression and mental health with a prevalence rate of 49%. Five studies (12%) examined post-traumatic stress disorder. In places devastated by riots, the prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder varied from 4% to 41%. Other studies investigated anxiety, alcohol abuse, and homelessness. However, two studies revealed that group activities could lower depression and suicide rates, perhaps as a result of increased social cohesiveness and group catharsis among subpopulations. The researcher investigated the connection between collective activities and mental health in this systematic review, providing strong evidence that riots, protests, and other collective actions-even peaceful ones-can harm mental health outcomes. Thus, healthcare providers must be aware of the psychological and emotional effects of riots, revolutions, and demonstrations. It is essential to do more study on this newly identified sociopolitical driver of mental health.

Longitudinal associations between community violence exposure, posttraumatic stress symptoms, and eating disorder symptoms

BackgroundEating disorder (ED) symptoms have been associated with different types of traumatic events, such as exposure to sexual and physical violence, and emotional abuse. However, the relation between ED symptoms and community violence exposure (CVE) is underexplored, despite the latter’s adverse effects on many aspects of adolescent functioning. The primary aim of this study was to evaluate the relation between CVE and ED symptoms in adolescents, while also investigating the potential mediating and moderating roles of posttraumatic stress (PTS) symptoms, gender, and ethnicity.MethodsData were collected longitudinally over two consecutive years in the city of New Haven, CT, in the United States. Participants were 2612 adolescent students from the public school system (1397 girls and 1215 boys) with an average age of 12.8 years (SD = 1.29). The students were comprised of several different ethnic groups, including Caucasians, African Americans and Hispanic Americans. Associations between CVE (no exposure, witnessing, and victimization) and PTS symptoms at year one, and ED symptoms (thoughts and compensatory behaviors) at year two, were assessed with self-rating instruments. Moderation and mediation analyses were conducted using a variant of linear regression (Hayes PROCESS macro).ResultsED symptoms at year two were significantly associated with both witnessing and being a victim of community violence at year one, with most or all of the relations being explained by PTS symptoms. Overall, neither gender nor ethnicity had a meaningful moderating effect in the observed relations.ConclusionsThe findings support the notion that assessing and addressing PTS symptoms might be beneficial when treating individuals with ED symptoms who have experienced community violence, irrespective of gender or ethnicity.

Interpersonal Violence and Maxillofacial Injuries: Toward an Active Surveillance Proposal Through the Presentation Profile in Hospital Emergency Services.

To establish a set of variables that define a predictive profile of events of maxillofacial trauma resulting from interpersonal violence, we analyzed sociodemographic variables and clinical characteristics of injuries recorded in three tertiary care hospital centers in Chile. To assess the relation between categories, we applied a multiple correspondence analysis. We identified 567 cases. Two dimensions explained 53.4% of the model. The first dimension was composed of variables related to the severity of the injury: medical-legal prognosis (.574), type of trauma (.511), and the destination of the patient (.332); the second dimension was composed of variables related to the typology of interpersonal violence: type of violence (.398) and sex of the patient (.370). Two profiles were recognized: women, victims of domestic violence, with lesions affecting mainly soft tissues and not requiring hospitalization and men, victims of community violence, with lesions involving fractures associated with greater severity and requiring hospitalization. There are two key dimensions in the diagnosis of maxillofacial trauma resulting from interpersonal violence: severity of the injury and typology of the interpersonal violence. Exploring these predictive profiles can be a useful complement to the current screening tools of violence in clinical practice.

Exploring Responses to Community Violence Trauma Using a Neighborhood Network of Programs

Responses to community violence should include interventions not just for those who are offenders but also for those who are victims of the violence and community members who are affected by the violence. In this study, one city’s public health response to victims of community violence using a neighborhood trauma team network (NTTN) is explored. Neighborhood trauma teams provide victims and their families with psychological first aid, logistical guidance, and referral to long-term therapeutic services. These teams also provide referral and community meeting support for community residents exposed to violence. To better understand program operations and identify the strengths and challenges of this response model, semi-structured interviews with lead program staff were used as well as a review of program documents. The results show that the NTTN has a clear purpose in meeting immediate client needs, but ambiguity exists in the network’s role in community healing and in community violence prevention. The NTTN response is mapped onto a social–ecological framework of violence prevention to contextualize this community-based public health response in the broader public health–criminal justice setting in which it operates. Implications for NTTN function and coordination are discussed.

Community Violence and Trauma: The Moderating Role of Gender, Race and Sexual Orientation

ABSTRACT Although community violence exposure is associated with trauma symptoms, the research on the demographic factors that might amplify this risk in university students is still emerging. Additional data focused on identifying populations most at-risk for trauma secondary to community violence can support the development of outreach and intervention efforts more precisely. This study examines the relationship between community violence victimization and trauma symptoms and determines whether gender, race/ethnicity, and sexual orientation moderates the relationship. The sample consisted of 499 undergraduate students who completed a demographic questionnaire, the Trauma Symptom Checklist-40, and the Survey of Exposure to Community Violence. At the bivariate level, gender, sexual orientation, and race were not associated with community violence victimization. Identifying as a woman and community violence victimization were positively related to trauma symptoms, while identifying as LGBTQA was negatively associated with trauma symptoms. Race was not associated with trauma symptoms. Moderation analyses indicated that identifying as a woman and identifying as LGBTQA strengthened the relationship between community violence victimization and trauma symptoms, while racial identity was not a significant moderator. We discuss implications, including the factors that may increase trauma symptom development for females and LGTBTQA survivors of community violence.

Exploring the influence of cultural participation on the subjective well-being of victims in Mexico.

Considering the increasing incidence of crime in Mexico, it is necessary to understand the strategies that individuals utilize in response to victimization and the effects of this on their subjective well-being. A generalized structural equation modeling (GSEM) analysis with data from the 2012 Self-reported Well-Being Survey (BIARE, n = 10,654); dependent variables: subjective well-being (i.e., cognitive well-being and affective balance); independent variables: self-reported victimization (i.e., by domestic violence, community violence, and structural violence) and cultural participation (i.e., cultural attendance, engagement, and consumption). Results show an overall positive and statistical influence of the cultural participation activities on the subjective well-being of victims of community and structural violence (but not of domestic violence), because, for those who reported higher levels of cultural participation, the probability of better subjective well-being were higher. Victims potentially coped and adapted to stressful and traumatic situations (i.e., experiences of victimization) via cultural participation activities. However, there are distinctive effects according to different forms of violence, which may be accounted for in formulating public policies related to victims. This has implications for scholars, policymakers, and practitioners in improving the general quality of life of victims and the general population.

Comparisons of violence exposure within and across contexts in predicting depression among Chinese children and adolescents

BackgroundExisting research has identified violence exposure as a risk factor for depression among children and adolescents. To date, however, we know little about whether these associations are influenced by the forms (witnessing and victimization) of violence exposure across different contexts (family, school, and community). ObjectiveThe present study thus aimed to compare the effects of two forms of violence exposure across and within three contexts. Sex and age differences were also tested in the above associations. Participants and settingParticipants (N = 906, 52.4 % boys, T1: Mage = 11.03) were children and adolescents recruited from elementary and junior schools in Zhejiang Province, China. MethodsAll participants were asked to complete questionnaires about their experiences of various types of violence exposure and depression at two time points with a 12-month interval. SPSS and Mplus were used to analyze the data. ResultsConsidering the comparison within contexts, witnessing family violence was a more influential predictor than family violence victimization while school violence was the opposite. As for the comparison across contexts, no significant differences were found in the effects of different violence victimization, while the effect of witnessing family violence and community violence were more influential than witnessing school violence. No significant sex differences in the above associations were found. However, community violence victimization was more negatively related to depression among adolescents compared with children. ConclusionsThe associations between violence exposure and depression are influenced by the forms and contexts of violence as well as age groups.

A Conceptual Model of Help-Seeking by Black Americans After Violent Injury: Implications for Reducing Inequities in Access to Care

Many inequities exist in serving and supporting Black survivors of violent crime. A key question in reducing inequities in care after victimization is whether police first responders and other formal system providers identify the victim as an “offender” and/or someone who is “undeserving” of supports. These labels and associated biases can directly reduce access to supports through a variety of mechanisms that include police withholding information about one’s rights as a victim, among other direct and indirect barriers to social and health services. Unaddressed financial, mental, and physical health consequences of victimization contribute to poorer health outcomes later in life. This paper seeks to bring together the extant research on help-seeking, discrimination in criminal legal system functioning, and barriers to victim services by synthesizing these discrete threads into a theoretically and empirically informed conceptual model that captures the range of factors that shape Black Americans’ decision to report their victimization to the police and subsequent help-seeking. Qualitative and quantitative data from a purposive sample of 91 Black victims of community violence is used to ground the developing model. The conceptual model can help lay the foundation for research that seeks to remedy the marked mismatch between the prevalence of violent victimization and help-seeking among Black Americans. Research findings can be applied to guide policies and programming to reduce inequities in care for victims of violence.

Epidemiology of Firearm Injury in Children at US Trauma Centers

Epidemiology of Firearm Injury in Children at US Trauma Centers

Beliefs as Mediators of Relations Between Exposure to Violence and Physical Aggression During Early Adolescence.

This study examined beliefs about aggression and self-efficacy for nonviolent responses as mediators of longitudinal relations between exposure to violence and physical aggression. Participants were a predominantly African American (79%) sample of 2,705 early adolescents from three middle schools within urban neighborhoods with high rates of violence. Participants completed measures across four waves (fall, winter, spring, and summer) within a school year. Beliefs supporting proactive aggression, beliefs against fighting, and self-efficacy for nonviolence partially mediated relations between witnessing violence and physical aggression. Indirect effects for beliefs supporting proactive aggression and self-efficacy were maintained after controlling for victimization and negative life events. Beliefs supporting proactive aggression mediated the effects of violent victimization on physical aggression, but these effects were not significant after controlling for witnessing violence and negative life events. The findings underscore the importance of examining the unique pathways from witnessing community violence versus violent victimization to physical aggression.

Home, school, and community violence exposure and emotional and conduct problems among low-income adolescents: the moderating role of age and sex

The purpose of this study is to assess whether violence exposure is associated with emotional/conduct problems, when adjusting for confounders/covariates and controlling for comorbidity, and to investigate interactions between violence exposure and sex and/or age. This cross-sectional study evaluated a community-based sample of 669 in-school 11-15-year-olds. A three-stage probabilistic sampling plan included a random selection of census units, eligible households, and target child. Multivariable logistic regression investigated the effect of severe physical punishment by parents, peer victimization at school, and community violence on the study outcomes (adolescent-reported emotional/conduct problems identified by the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire/SDQ) when controlling for confounders (resilience, parental emotional warmth, maternal education/unemployment/anxiety/depression) and covariates (age, sex, stressful life events, parental rejection). Considering interactions, emotional problems were associated with community violence victimization among girls, while conduct problems were associated with severe physical punishment among the younger, suffering peer aggression among the oldest, bullying victimization among girls, and witnessing community violence among boys. Desensitization (less emotional problems with greater violence exposure) was noted among the youngest exposed to severe physical punishment and the oldest who witnessed community violence. Age and sex are moderators of the association between violence exposure and emotional/conduct problems. Interventions at local health units, schools, and communities could reduce the use of harsh physical punishment as a parental educational method, help adolescents deal with peer aggression at school and keep them out of the streets by increasing the usual five hours in school per day and making free sports and cultural/leisure activities available near their homes.

What Happens After School? Linking Latino Adolescents' Activities and Exposure to Community Violence.

Although community violence and the deleterious behavioral and psychological consequences that are associated with exposure to community violence persist as serious public health concerns, identifying malleable factors that increase or decrease adolescents’ risk of exposure to community violence remains a significant gap in our knowledge base. This longitudinal study addresses this research gap by investigating adolescents’ endorsement of familismo values and participation in three types of after-school activities, specifically home-, school-, and community-based activities, as potential precursors to adolescents’ risk for experiencing community violence. The sample consists of 416 Latino high school students (53% female) with a mean age of 15.5 years (SD = 1.0) and with 85% qualifying for free and reduced school lunch. Cross-sectional results demonstrated that adolescents’ endorsement of the Latino cultural value of familismo was associated with lower rates of personal victimization. The frequency of non-structured community-based activities and part-time work were concurrently associated with higher rates of witnessing community violence and being personally victimized by violence. Only the frequency of non-structured community-based activities was related to witnessing more community violence and greater victimization one year later while controlling for prior exposure to violence. These findings underscore the importance of providing structured, well supervised after-school activities for low-income youth in high-risk neighborhoods.

Recovery of Pediatric Patients After Firearm Injury: Can Health Systems Do More?

Firearm injuries are the second leading cause of death among youth in the United States. Nonfatal firearm injuries far outnumber fatalities, yet data detailing the recovery and post-injury needs of pediatric patients after hospital discharge are limited. This study evaluated health system support of pediatric patients after firearm injury, from acute hospitalization to outpatient follow-up. We conducted a retrospective chart review of patients <18years who presented to an urban level 1 trauma center between 2014 and 2019. Cases were categorized as accidental or intentional (stratified as assault-related or "crossfire" injuries). Outcomes included biopsychosocial assessment (BA) utilization, trauma psychology service consultation, and linkage to outpatient services. Among 115 patients, 94% were victims of community violence. Black (50%) and Latinx (44%) patients were disproportionately affected, as were males aged 15-16 years (71%). Overall mortality was 8%. Biopsychosocial assessment and trauma psychology consultations occurred in 43% and 20% of cases, respectively. Of eligible patients, 71% received referral to post-hospitalization support services. The most commonly identified needs were counseling, gang intervention, and help with the carceral system. Health systems should support long-term recovery of pediatric patients after firearm injury, particularly addressing social and structural determinants of health. Inpatient-to-outpatient linkages should be strengthened, and prospective follow-up is needed.

The relationship between exposure of Palestinian youth to community violence and internalizing and externalizing symptoms: Do gender and social support matter?

BackgroundYouth exposure to community violence (ECV) in the Palestinian society is an alarming problem. Yet, there is serious scarcity of research on its mental health consequences. ObjectivesThe study examined the relationships between youth ECV and internalizing and externalizing symptoms as well as the moderating and mediating effects of gender and support from family and teachers on these relationships. Participants, Setting, and MethodA cross-sectional survey was conducted among a systematic random sample of 1930 Palestinian junior and senior high school pupils (912 boys, 1018 girls, aged 12–19-year- old), using a self-administered questionnaire. ResultsThe results revealed that the more Palestinian youth were exposed to community violence (CV) the more they demonstrated internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Palestinian boys who were victims of CV reported higher levels of externalizing symptoms, while girls reported higher levels of internalizing symptoms. Adolescents with higher levels of family support and teacher support reported lower levels of internalizing and externalizing symptoms. We have also found that gender can moderate the effects of CV victimization on internalizing symptoms and that family support can mediates the relationship between CV victimization and internalizing symptoms and moderate the relationships between ECV (both victimization and witnessing) and externalizing symptoms. ConclusionsThe moderating and mediating effects of gender and social support on the relationship between ECV and mental health consequences are discussed. The implications of the results for future research and for prevention and intervention as well as the strengths and limitations of the study are also discussed.

Violence prevention accelerators for children and adolescents in South Africa: A path analysis using two pooled cohorts.

The INSPIRE framework was developed by 10 global agencies as the first global package for preventing and responding to violence against children. The framework includes seven complementary strategies. Delivering all seven strategies is a challenge in resource-limited contexts. Consequently, governments are requesting additional evidence to inform which 'accelerator' provisions can simultaneously reduce multiple types of violence against children. We pooled data from two prospective South African adolescent cohorts including Young Carers (2010-2012) and Mzantsi Wakho (2014-2017). The combined sample size was 5,034 adolescents. Each cohort measured six self-reported violence outcomes (sexual abuse, transactional sexual exploitation, physical abuse, emotional abuse, community violence victimisation, and youth lawbreaking) and seven self-reported INSPIRE-aligned protective factors (positive parenting, parental monitoring and supervision, food security at home, basic economic security at home, free schooling, free school meals, and abuse response services). Associations between hypothesised protective factors and violence outcomes were estimated jointly in a sex-stratified multivariate path model, controlling for baseline outcomes and socio-demographics and correcting for multiple-hypothesis testing using the Benjamini-Hochberg procedure. We calculated adjusted probability estimates conditional on the presence of no, one, or all protective factors significantly associated with reduced odds of at least three forms of violence in the path model. Adjusted risk differences (ARDs) and adjusted risk ratios (ARRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were also calculated. The sample mean age was 13.54 years, and 56.62% were female. There was 4% loss to follow-up. Positive parenting, parental monitoring and supervision, and food security at home were each associated with lower odds of three or more violence outcomes (p < 0.05). For girls, the adjusted probability of violence outcomes was estimated to be lower if all three of these factors were present, as compared to none of them: sexual abuse, 5.38% and 1.64% (ARD: -3.74% points, 95% CI -5.31 to -2.16, p < 0.001); transactional sexual exploitation, 10.07% and 4.84% (ARD: -5.23% points, 95% CI -7.26 to -3.20, p < 0.001); physical abuse, 38.58% and 23.85% (ARD: -14.72% points, 95% CI -19.11 to -10.33, p < 0.001); emotional abuse, 25.39% and 12.98% (ARD: -12.41% points, 95% CI -16.00 to -8.83, p < 0.001); community violence victimisation, 36.25% and 28.37% (ARD: -7.87% points, 95% CI -11.98 to -3.76, p < 0.001); and youth lawbreaking, 18.90% and 11.61% (ARD: -7.30% points, 95% CI -10.50 to -4.09, p < 0.001). For boys, the adjusted probability of violence outcomes was also estimated to be lower if all three factors were present, as compared to none of them: sexual abuse, 2.39% to 1.80% (ARD: -0.59% points, 95% CI -2.24 to 1.05, p = 0.482); transactional sexual exploitation, 6.97% to 4.55% (ARD: -2.42% points, 95% CI -4.77 to -0.08, p = 0.043); physical abuse from 37.19% to 25.44% (ARD: -11.74% points, 95% CI -16.91 to -6.58, p < 0.001); emotional abuse from 23.72% to 10.72% (ARD: -13.00% points, 95% CI -17.04 to -8.95, p < 0.001); community violence victimisation from 41.28% to 35.41% (ARD: -5.87% points, 95% CI -10.98 to -0.75, p = 0.025); and youth lawbreaking from 22.44% to 14.98% (ARD -7.46% points, 95% CI -11.57 to -3.35, p < 0.001). Key limitations were risk of residual confounding and not having information on protective factors related to all seven INSPIRE strategies. In this cohort study, we found that positive and supervisory caregiving and food security at home are associated with reduced risk of multiple forms of violence against children. The presence of all three of these factors may be linked to greater risk reduction as compared to the presence of one or none of these factors. Policies promoting action on positive and supervisory caregiving and food security at home are likely to support further efficiencies in the delivery of INSPIRE.

The Role of Depressive Symptoms in Substance Use Among African American Boys Exposed to Community Violence.

Adolescents exposed to community violence (CV) are at increased risk for alcohol, marijuana, and tobacco use. The disproportionate exposure to CV among African American boys heightens their susceptibility to substance use and related problems. Depressive symptoms are linked to both CV exposure and adolescent substance use; however, their role in the link between CV exposure and substance use in African American male adolescents has received little attention. The current study examined whether depressive symptoms mediate or moderate the associations between CV exposure and substance use among African American male adolescents. Participants were 225 African American adolescent boys in Baltimore, Maryland who completed measures of CV exposure and depressive symptoms in 10th grade and measures of substance use in 10th and 11th grades. Hierarchal linear regression analyses indicated that depressive symptoms moderated associations between violent victimization and alcohol and tobacco use, R2 = .21-.30, ps < .001. There was a positive association between CV victimization and alcohol and tobacco use among those who reported high levels of depressive symptoms but not low levels. Depressive symptoms also moderated the link between witnessing CV and alcohol use such that witnessing CV was negatively related to alcohol use among those who reported high levels of depressive symptoms only. The findings suggest that depressive symptoms may play an important role in differentiating alcohol and tobacco use outcomes in CV-exposed African American boys. Prevention efforts should assess for depressive symptoms to identify adolescent boys with the highest risk of substance use.

Does cyberbullying occur simultaneously with other types of violence exposure?

Objective:Our study aimed to verify whether cyberbullying victimization among adolescents occurs concomitantly with other forms of violence exposure (at home, at school and in the community).Methods:A collaborative longitudinal study by Norwegian and Brazilian researchers was conducted in Itaboraí, a low-income city in southeast Brazil. At baseline, trained interviewers applied a semi-structured questionnaire to a population-based sample of 669 in-school adolescents (11-15 years old). The investigated types of violence exposure included cyberbullying, traditional bullying, severe physical punishment by parents and community violence (victimization and eye-witnessed violent events outside the home and school).Results:In the previous six months, 1.9% of the adolescents had been victims of cyberbullying, and 21.9% had been victims of physical aggression, verbal harassment and/or social manipulation by peers. However, only 5.5% of the adolescents considered themselves bullying victims. In the previous 12 months, 12.4% of adolescents had suffered severe physical punishment, 14.0% had been victims of community violence, and 20.9% eye-witnessed community violence. Multivariable regression analysis showed that victimization by multiple types of traditional bullying and self-perceived bullying victimization were correlates of cyberbullying victimization, while suffering violence at home and in the community were not.Conclusion:This study provides evidence of an association between cyberbullying, traditional bullying and self-perceived bullying among low-income Brazilian adolescents.

ADHD and depressive symptoms in adolescents: the role of community violence exposure.

Comorbid depression is common in adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). As yet, however, little is known about the factors associated with co-occurring depression in this population. To address this research gap, the current study examined the role of community violence exposure in the association between ADHD symptoms and depression. Data came from 505 Russian adolescents [mean age 14.37 (SD = 0.96)] who had teacher-reported information on ADHD symptoms that was collected in conjunction with the Social and Health Assessment (SAHA). Adolescent self-reports of witnessing and being a victim of community violence were also obtained while depressive symptoms were self-assessed with an adapted version of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale (CES-D). Logistic regression analyses were performed to examine associations. In univariable analyses, both witnessing and being a victim of violence were associated with significantly increased odds for depressive symptoms in adolescents with ADHD symptoms compared to non-ADHD adolescents who had not experienced community violence. However, in the multivariable analysis only being a victim of violence continued to be associated with significantly increased odds for depression [odds ratio (OR) 4.67, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.33-16.35]. Exposure to community violence may be associated with depression in adolescents with ADHD symptoms. Clinicians should enquire about exposure to community violence in adolescents with ADHD/ADHD symptoms. Early therapeutic interventions to address the effects of violence exposure in adolescents with ADHD may be beneficial for preventing depression in this group.

Positive School Climate as a Moderator of Violence Exposure for Colombian Adolescents.

In Colombia, many adolescents have experienced violence related to the decades-long armed conflict in the country and have witnessed or been directly victimized by violence in their communities, often related to gang activity or drug trafficking. Exposure to violence, both political and community violence, has detrimental implications for adolescent development. This study used data from 1857 Colombian adolescents in an urban setting. We aim to understand the relations between exposure to violence and adolescent outcomes, both externalizing behaviors and developmental competence, and then to understand whether school climate (i.e., safety, connectedness, services) moderates these relations. Results demonstrate that armed conflict, community violence victimization, and witnessing community violence are positively associated with externalizing behaviors, but only armed conflict is negatively associated with developmental competence. School safety, connectedness, and services moderate the relation between community violence witnessing and externalizing behaviors. School services moderates the relation between community violence victimization and developmental competence. As students perceived more positive school climate, the effects of community violence exposure on outcomes were weakened. This study identifies potential levers for intervention regarding how schools can better support violence-affected youth through enhancements to school safety, connectedness, and services.

Moderators of the Association Between Exposure to Violence in Community, Family, and Dating Contexts and Substance Use Disorder Risk Among North American Indigenous Adolescents

Exposure to violence and substance abuse are salient public health concerns among Indigenous people (i.e., American Indian and Canadian First Nations). Despite this, little research has examined the association between the two among community-based reservation/reserve samples, or factors within the broader social environment that may moderate this association. As such, the purpose of the study is to examine ecological moderators of the association between direct (i.e., dating violence victimization) and indirect (i.e., current perceptions of community violence and prospective caretaker-reported victimization exposure) exposure to violence and meeting diagnostic criteria for a substance use disorder among a large longitudinal sample of Indigenous youth and their caretakers in the upper-Midwest of the United States and Canada (N = 521). Data come from the last two waves of the study, when the adolescents were between the ages of 16 and 19 years. The results show relatively high rates of direct and indirect violence exposure by late adolescence. Logistic regression models with added interaction terms were examined to test moderating effects. Per capita family income and remote location both amplified the positive association between current community violence exposure and substance use disorder risk. Family warmth and support buffered the association between caretaker victimization exposure and substance use disorder risk, whereas dating violence victimization exposure amplified this association. The findings are contextualized for Indigenous communities, and substance abuse prevention and intervention implications are discussed.