Open AccessExamining the effects of emotional and cognitive desensitization to community violence exposure in male adolescents of color.
Author(s) -
i K. GaylordHarden,
Suzanna So,
Grace Jhe Bai,
Patrick H. Tolan
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
american journal of orthopsychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.959
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1939-0025
pISSN - 0002-9432
DOI - 10.1037/ort0000241
Subject(s) - mediation , psychology , desensitization (medicine) , psycinfo , poison control , clinical psychology , injury prevention , developmental psychology , suicide prevention , human factors and ergonomics , association (psychology) , medicine , medical emergency , medline , receptor , political science , law , psychotherapist
The current study examined pathways in a model of desensitization, the Pathologic Adaptation Model, in adolescent males of color. Specifically, the current study examined depressive symptoms and deviant beliefs as mediators of the association between community violence exposure and subsequent violent behavior. The current study included 250 African-American (67%) and Latino (33%) male adolescents (T1 mean age = 15.32) from the Chicago Youth Development Study. Consistent with the Pathologic Adaptation Model, results demonstrated that depressive symptoms mediated the association between the quadratic violence exposure term in middle adolescence and violent behaviors in late adolescence, but the direction of the mediation effect was dependent upon the levels of violence exposure in middle adolescence. However, deviant beliefs were not found to be a significant mediator. Emotional desensitization effects may increase the likelihood of violence perpetration in adolescent males exposed to community violence, and the implications for future research and intervention efforts are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record