Open AccessCommunity Violence Exposure and Adolescent Delinquency
Author(s) -
Ping Chen,
Dexter R. Voisin,
Kristen C. Jacobson
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
youth and society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.969
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1552-8499
pISSN - 0044-118X
DOI - 10.1177/0044118x13475827
Subject(s) - juvenile delinquency , psychology , human factors and ergonomics , poison control , suicide prevention , ethnically diverse , developmental psychology , injury prevention , occupational safety and health , social psychology , clinical psychology , demography , environmental health , medicine , sociology , population , pathology
This study examined whether promotive factors (future expectations, family warmth, school attachment, and neighborhood cohesion) moderated relationships between community violence exposure and youth delinquency. Analyses were conducted using N = 2,980 sixth to eighth graders ( M age = 12.48; 41.1% males) from a racially, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse sample. After controlling for demographic factors, delinquency was positively associated with community violence exposure and inversely associated with each of the promotive factors. When interaction effects between all promotive factors and community violence exposure were examined simultaneously, only future expectations moderated the relationship between community violence exposure and delinquency. Specifically, community violence exposure had a weaker association with delinquency for youth reporting high versus low levels of future expectations. Results indicate that while promotive factors from family, school, and neighborhood domains are related to lower rates of delinquency, only future expectations served as a protective factor that specifically buffered youth from the risk effects of community violence exposure.