The goal of this literature review is to identify protective factors associated with children's emotional responses to chronic community violence exposure for purposes of designing preventive interventions. After a brief description of the prevalence and impact of children's exposure to chronic community violence, protective factors are identified. Community violence is then conceptualized as one of many cumulative environmental risk factors to which children living in impoverished urban areas are likely to be exposed. Examples of how various aspects of social support and coping, the protective factors associated with exposure to community violence and neighborhood disadvantage, might be integrated into preventive intervention are presented. Finally, suggestions are made with regard to future research efforts, which might address some of the methodological problems that are evident in the present literature.
Achenbach, T. M.
(1991). Integrative guide for the 1991 CBCL/4-18 and TRF profiles. Burlington: University of Vermont, Department of Psychiatry.
2.
American Psychiatric Association
. (1980). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (3rd ed.). Washington, DC: Author.
3.
Attar, B. K.
, Guerra, N. G., & Tolan, P. H. (1994). Neighborhood disadvantage, stressful life events, and adjustment in urban elementary-school children. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 23, 391-400.
4.
Bell, C. C.
(1987). Preventive strategies for dealing with violence among Blacks. Community Mental Health, 23, 217-228.
5.
Bell, C. C.
, & Jenkins, E. J. (1993). Community violence and children on Chicago's southside. Psychiatry, 56, 46-54.
6.
Berman, S. L.
, Kurtines, W. M., Silverman, W. K., & Serafini, L. (1996). The impact of exposure to crime and violence on urban youth. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 66, 329-336.
7.
Black, M.
, & Krishnakumar, A. (1998). Children in low-income urban settings: Interventions to promote mental health & wellbeing. American Psychologist, 53, 635-646.
8.
Blechman, E. A.
, Dumas, J. E., & Prinz, R. J. (1994). Prosocial coping by youth exposed to violence. Journal of Child & Adolescent Group Therapy, 4, 205-227.
9.
Bowen, G. L.
, & Chapman, M. V. (1996). Poverty, neighborhood danger, social support, and the individual adaptation among at-risk youth in urban areas. Journal of Family Issues, 17, 641-666.
10.
Briere, J.
(in press). Professional manual for the trauma symptom checklist for children (TSC-C). Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.
11.
Cairns, E.
, & Dawes, A. (1996). Children: Ethnic and political violence—A commentary. Child Development, 67, 129-139.
12.
Cauce, A. M.
, Felner, R. D., & Primavera, J. (1982). Social support in high-risk adolescents: Structural components and adaptive impact. American Journal of Community Psychology, 10, 417-428.
13.
Cicchetti, D.
, & Lynch, M. (1993). Toward an ecological/transactional model of community violence: Consequences for children's development. Psychiatry, 56, 96-118.
14.
Cicchetti, D.
, & Rizley, R. (1981). Developmental perspectives on the etiology, intergenerational transmission, and sequelae of child maltreatment. New Directions for Child Development, 11, 31-55.
15.
Cooley-Quille, M. R.
, Turner, S. M., & Beidel, D. C. (1995). Emotional impact of children's exposure to community violence: A preliminary study. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 34, 1362-1368.
16.
Cowen, E. L.
, Wyman, P. A., Work, W. C., & Iker, M. R. (1995). A preventive intervention for enhancing resilience among highly stressed urban children. Journal of Primary Prevention, 15, 247-260.
17.
Cowen, E. L.
, Wyman, P. A., Work, W. C., Kim, J. Y., Fagen, D. B., & Magnus, K. B. (1997). Follow-up of young stress-affected and stress-resilient urban children. Development & Psychopathology, 9, 565-577.
18.
De Haan, L. G.
, & MacDermid, S. (1998). The relationship of individual family factors to the psychological wellbeing of junior high school students living in urban poverty. Adolescence, 33, 73-89.
19.
Dubow, E. F.
, Edwards, S., & Ippolito, M. (1997). Life stressors, neighborhood disadvantage, and resources: A focus on inner-city children's adjustment. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 26, 130-144.
20.
Dubow, N.
, & Ullman, D. C. (1989). Assessing social support in elementary school children: The survey of children's social support. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 18, 52-64.
21.
DuRant, R. H.
, Cadenhead, C., Pendergrast, R. A., Slavens, G., & Linder, C. W. (1994). Factors associated with the use of violence among urban Black adolescents. American Journal of Public Health, 84, 612-627.
22.
DuRant, R. H.
, Getts, A., Cadenhead, C., Emans, S. J., & Woods, E. R. (1995). Exposure to violence and victimization and depression, hopelessness, and purpose in life among adolescents living in and around public housing. Pediatrics, 16, 233-237.
23.
Elliot, D. S.
, Wilson, W. J., Huizinga, D., Sampson, R. J., Elliot, A., & Rankin, B. (1996). The effects of neighborhood disadvantage on adolescent development. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 33, 389-426.
24.
Farrell, A. D.
, & Bruce, S. E. (1997). Impact of exposure to community violence on violent behavior and emotional distress among urban adolescents. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 26, 2-14.
25.
Farver, J. M.
, & Frosch, D. L. (1996). L.A. stories: Aggression in preschooler's spontaneous narratives after the riots of 1992. Child Development, 67, 19-32.
26.
Federal Bureau of Investigation
. (1992). Uniform crime reports 1991. Washington, DC: Department of Justice.
27.
Fitzpatrick, K. M.
(1993). Exposure to violence and presence of depression among low-income African-American youth. Journal of Consulting & Clinical Psychology, 61, 528-531.
28.
Fitzpatrick, K. M.
, & Boldizar, J. P. (1993). The prevalence and consequences of exposure to violence among African-American youth. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 32, 424-430.
29.
Garbarino, J.
, Kostelny, K., & Dubrow, N. (1991). No place to be a child. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books.
30.
Garmezy, N.
(1993). Children in poverty: Resilience despite risk. Psychiatry, 56, 127-136.
31.
Gentry, J.
, & Eron, L. D. (1993). American Psychological Association commission on violence and youth. American Psychologist, 48, 89-91.
32.
Gladstein, J.
, Rusonis, E. S., & Heald, F. P. (1992). A comparison of inner-city and upper-middle class youths' exposure to violence. Journal of Adolescent Health, 13, 275-280.
33.
Gladstein, J.
, & Slater, E. J. (1988). Inner city teenagers' exposure to violence: A prevalence study. Maryland Medical Journal, 37, 951.
34.
Gorman-Smith, D.
, & Tolan, P. (1998). The role of exposure to community violence and developmental problems among inner-city youth. Development & Psychopathology, 10, 101-116.
35.
Groves, B. M.
(1997). Growing up in a violent world: The impact of family and community violence on young children and their families. Topics in Early Childhood Special Education, 17, 74-102.
36.
Hightower, A. D.
(1986). The Teacher Child Rating Scale: A brief objective measure of elementary children's school problem behavior and competencies. School Psychology Review, 15, 393-409.
37.
Hill, H. M.
, & Jones, L. P. (1997). Children's and parents' perceptions of children's exposure to violence in urban neighborhoods. Journal of the National Medical Association, 89, 270-276.
38.
Hill, H. M.
, & Madhere, S. (1996). Exposure to community violence and African American children: A multidimensional model of risks and resources. Journal of Community Psychology, 24, 26-43.
39.
Holland, C. C.
, Koblinksy, S. A., & Anderson, E. (1995). Parental strategies for protecting Head Start children from violence: Implications for family-focused violence education programs. National Head Start Association Research Quarterly, 1, 171-173.
40.
Holland, C. C.
, Koblinsky, S. A., Lorion, R. P., & Anderson, E. (1996, June). Homelessness and exposure to community violence: Child and maternal adjustment among urban head start families. Poster session presented at the Head Start Third National Research Conference, Washington, DC.
41.
Horn, J. L.
, & Trickett, P. K. (1998). Community violence and child development: A review of the research. In P. K. Trickett & C. Schellenbach (Eds.), Violence against children in the family and the community (pp. 103-138). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
42.
Horowitz, N.
, Weine, S., & Jekal, J. (1995). PTSD symptoms in urban adolescent girls: Compounded community trauma. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 34, 1353-1361.
43.
Jarrett, R. L.
(1995). Growing up poor: The family experiences of socially mobile youth in low-income African-American neighborhoods. Journal of Adolescent Research, 10, 111-135.
44.
Jensen, P. S.
, & Shaw, J. (1993). Children as victims of war: Current knowledge and future research needs. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 32, 697-708.
45.
Kliewer, W.
, & Kung, E. (1998). Family moderators of the relation between hassles and behavior problems in inner-city youth. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 27, 278-292.
46.
Kliewer, W.
, Lepore, S. J., Oskin, D., & Johnson, P. D. (1998). The role of social and cognitive processes in children's adjustment to community violence. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 66, 199-209.
47.
Kovacs, M.
(1985). The children's depression inventory (CDI). Psychopharmacological Bulletin, 21, 995-998.
48.
Lorion, R. P.
, & Saltzman, W. (1993). Children's exposure to community violence: Following a path from concern to research to action. Psychiatry: Interpersonal & Biological Processes, 56, 55-65.
49.
Marans, S.
(1995). The police-mental health partnership: A community-based response to urban violence. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
50.
Marans, S.
, & Cohen, D. J. (1993). Children and inner-city violence: Strategies for intervention. In L. A. Leavitt & N. A. Fox (Eds.), The psychological effects of war and violence (pp. 281-301). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
51.
Martinez, P.
, & Richters, J. E. (1993). The NIMH Community Violence Project II: Children's distress symptoms associated with violence exposure. Psychiatry, 56, 22-35.
52.
McCabe, K. M.
, Clark, R., & Barnett, D. (1999). Family protective factors among urban African American youth. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 28, 137-150.
53.
McKay, M. M.
, Gonzales, J. J., Stone, S., Ryland, D., & Kohner, K. (1995). Multiple family therapy groups: A responsive intervention model for inner city families. Social Work With Groups, 18, 41-56.
54.
Miller, L. S.
, Wasserman, G. A., Neugebauer, R., Gorman-Smith, D., & Kamboukos, D. (1999). Witnessed community violence and antisocial behavior in high-risk, urban boys. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 28, 2-11.
55.
Myers, H. F.
, & Taylor, S. (1998). Family contributions to risk and resilience in African American children. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 29, 215-229.
56.
Osofsky, J. D.
(1995). The effect of exposure to violence on young children. American Psychologist, 50, 782-788.
57.
Osofsky, J. D.
, Wewers, S., Hann, D. M., & Fick, A. C. (1993). Chronic community violence: What is happening to our children?Psychiatry: Interpersonal & Biological Processes, 56, 36-45.
58.
Overstreet, S.
, Dempsey, M., Graham, D., & Moely, B. (1999). Availability of family support as a moderator of exposure to community violence. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 28, 151-159.
59.
Public Health Service
. (1990). Healthy people 2000: National health promotion and disease prevention objectives. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
60.
Pynoos, R. S.
(1993). Traumatic stress and developmental psychopathology in children and adolescents. Review of psychiatry, 12, 205-237.
61.
Pynoos, R. S.
, & Eth, S. (1985). Developmental perspectives on psychic trauma in childhood. In R. C. Figley (Ed.), Trauma and its wake. New York: Brunner/Mazel.
62.
Pynoos, R. S.
, Frederick, C., Nader, K., Arroyo, W., Steinberg, A., Eth, S., Nunez, F., & Fairbanks, L. (1987). Life threat and posttraumatic stress in school-age children. Archives of General Psychiatry, 44, 1057-1063.
63.
Pynoos, R. S.
, & Nader, K. (1988). Psychological first aid and treatment approach to children exposed to community violence: Research implications. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 1, 445-473.
64.
Pynoos, R. S.
, & Nader, K. (1990). Children's exposure to violence and traumatic death. Psychiatric Annals, 20, 334-344.
65.
Quay, H. C.
, & Peterson, D. R. (1983). Interim manual for the revised behavior problem checklist. Coral Gables, FL: University of Miami.
66.
Raundalen, M.
, Lwanga, J., Mugisha, C., & Dyregrov, A. (1987). Four investigations on stress among children in Uganda. In C. P. Dodge & M. Raundalen (Eds.), War, violence, and children in Uganda (pp. 83-108). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
67.
Reiss, D.
, & Price, R. H. (1996). National research agenda for prevention research: The National Institute of Mental Health Report. American Psychologist, 51, 1109-1115.
68.
Richters, J. E.
(1993). Community violence and children's development: Toward a research agenda for the 1990's. Psychiatry, 56, 3-6.
69.
Richters, J. E.
, & Martinez, P. (1993a). The NIMH community violence project I: Children as victims and witnesses to violence. Psychiatry: Interpersonal & Biological Processes, 56, 7-21.
70.
Richters, J. E.
, & Martinez, P. E. (1993b). Violent communities, family choices, and children's chances: An algorithm for improving the odds. Development & Psychopathology, 5, 609-627.
71.
Richters, J.
, & Weintraub, S. (1990). Beyond diathesis: toward an understanding of high-risk environments. In J. E. Rolf, A. S. Masten, D. Cicchetti, K. H. Nuechterlein, & S. Weintraub (Eds.), Risk and protective factors in the development of psychopathology (pp. 67-87). New York: Cambridge University Press.
72.
Rutter, M.
(1987). Psychosocial resilience and protective mechanisms. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 57, 316-331.
73.
Rutter, M.
(1990). Psychosocial resilience and protective mechanisms. In J. E. Rolf, A. S. Masten, D. Cicchetti, K. H. Nuechterlein, & S. Weintraub (Eds.), Risk and protective factors in the development of psychopathology (pp. 181-214). New York: Cambridge University Press.
74.
Sameroff, A.
, Seifer, R., Barocas, R., Zax, M. & Greenspan, S. (1987). Intelligence quotient scores of 4-year old children: Social environmental risk factors. Pediatrics, 79, 343-350.
75.
Schwab-Stone, M. E.
, Ayers, T. S., Kasprow, W., Voyce, C., Barone, C., Shriver, T., & Weissberg, R. P. (1995). No safe haven: A study of violence exposure in an urban community. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 34, 1343-1352.
76.
Singer, M. I.
, Anglin, T. M., Song, L., & Lunghofer, L. (1985). Adolescents' exposure to violence and associated symptoms of psychological trauma. Journal of the American Medical Association, 273, 4-9.
77.
Spielberger, C.
(1973). STAIC preliminary manual: The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologist Press.
78.
Spirito, A.
, Stark, L., & Williams, C. (1988). Development of a brief coping checklist for use with pediatric populations. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 13, 555-574.
79.
Warner, B. S.
, & Weist, M. D. (1996). Urban youth as witnesses to violence: Beginning assessment and treatment efforts. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 25, 361-377.
80.
Weist, M. D.
, Freedman, A. H., Paskewitz, D. A., Proescher, E. J., & Flaherty, L. T. (1995). Urban youth under stress: Empirical identification of protective factors. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 24, 705-721.
81.
White, K.
, Bruce, S. E., Farrell, A. D., & Kliewer, W. (1998). Impact of exposure to community violence on anxiety: A longitudinal study of family social support as a protective factor for urban children. Journal of Child & Family Studies, 7, 187-203.
82.
Wyman, P. A.
, Cowen, E. L., Work, W. C., & Parker, G. R. (1991). Developmental and family milieu correlates of resilience in urban children who have experienced major life stress. American Journal of Community Psychology, 19, 405-426.
83.
Wyman, P. A.
, Cowen, E. L., Work, W. C., Raoof, A., Gribble, P. A., Parker, G. R., & Wannon, M. (1992). Interviews with children who experienced major life stress: Family and child attributes that predict resilient outcomes. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 31, 904.
