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EXPLORING ADOLESCENT COMMUNITY VIOLENCE EXPOSURE AND POSTTRAUMATIC STRESS CROSS‐CULTURALLY IN ISRAEL
Author(s) -
Klodnick Vanessa Vorhies,
Guterman Neil,
HajYahia Muhammad M.,
Leshem Becky
Publication year - 2014
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/jcop.21593
Subject(s) - ethnic group , clinical psychology , context (archaeology) , distress , posttraumatic stress , ethnically diverse , multilevel model , mental health , medicine , psychology , psychiatry , paleontology , machine learning , sociology , anthropology , computer science , biology
Adolescent community violence exposure (CVE) has been linked to posttraumatic stress (PTS) and has been found to vary by race and ethnicity. Little is known about the relationship between adolescent CVE and PTS across ethnic groups in an international context. Arab and Jewish high school students (n = 1571) in Israel completed self‐report questionnaires. Jewish adolescents (n = 821) witnessed more community violence, while Arab adolescents (n = 750) were more likely to victimized in the community and endorse higher levels of PTS. Ethnicity was found to be a significant predictor of PTS when controlling for CVE using hierarchical multiple regression (accounting for 2% of the variance in PTS). Ethnic affiliation did not moderate the relationship between CVE and PTS. These findings add to the small body of literature exploring cross‐cultural differences in CVE and associated psychological distress. Further investigation of CVE and mental health cross‐ethnically is warranted given the disparities in CVE and PTS rates.