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Adolescents' exposure to community violence: Sleep and psychophysiological functioning
Author(s) -
CooleyQuille Michele,
Lorion Raymond
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
journal of community psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.585
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1520-6629
pISSN - 0090-4392
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1520-6629(199907)27:4<367::aid-jcop1>3.0.co;2-t
Subject(s) - psychology , sleep (system call) , clinical psychology , developmental psychology , computer science , operating system
The relationships among psychophysiological indices, sleep disturbance, and adolescents' exposure to community violence were examined in a pilot study of 64 community youth (ages 16–18; 84% African American), 25 of whom had their blood pressure and pulse rates assessed. Neither age nor gender differences were found in self‐reported sleep disturbance or community violence exposure. Self‐reported exposure to community violence and sleep deprivation were positively related. Multivariate analyses of covariance (MANCOVAs) revealed that youth at the highest of three levels of violence exposure had the lowest resting pulse rates. These results suggest that youth in communities marked by pervasive violence may be physiologically adapting and emotionally desensitizing to that violence. Implications for intervention are discussed. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.