The George Washington University, DC, USA.
University of California Santa Barbara, USA.
J Interpers Violence. 2021 Oct;36(19-20):9484-9506. doi: 10.1177/0886260519867148. Epub 2019 Aug 12.
Youth community violence has been linked with depressive and anxious symptoms, and aggressive behavior; however, little research has examined different combinations of emotional and behavioral adjustment among community-violence-exposed youth, or individual characteristics that may account for different patterns of emotional and behavioral adjustment in community-violence-exposed youth. This research used person-centered methods to examine how gender, temperament characteristics, and prior exposure to community violence were linked with classes of community violence exposure and internalizing and externalizing adjustment among a sample of urban African American youth. Participants were 464 African American adolescents (46.7% female; mean age = 14.83, = .43) who reported their community violence exposure in Grade 9 and for whom reports of depressive and anxious symptoms, and aggressive behavior were available. Latent class analysis identified four classes of adolescents distinguished by their exposure to community violence exposure and internalizing and externalizing behavior. The two classes with high community violence exposure were characterized by internalizing symptoms or aggressive behavior; the two classes with low community violence exposure had low internalizing symptoms with moderate aggression or had all moderate symptoms. These community violence adjustment classes were distinguished by gender, history of community violence exposure, behavioral inhibition, and fight-flight-freeze systems. Findings highlight heterogeneity in internalizing and externalizing responses of community-violence-exposed youth and suggest factors that explain community violence exposure, repeat exposure, and responses to community violence exposure.
青年社区暴力与抑郁和焦虑症状以及攻击行为有关；然而，很少有研究调查过经历社区暴力的青年中不同的情绪和行为调整组合，或可能解释经历社区暴力的青年情绪和行为调整不同模式的个体特征。本研究采用以人为中心的方法，考察了性别、气质特征和先前接触社区暴力与城市非裔美国青年群体中社区暴力暴露类别、内化和外化调整之间的联系。参与者是 464 名非裔美国青少年（46.7%为女性；平均年龄=14.83， =.43），他们在 9 年级报告了自己的社区暴力暴露情况，并且有抑郁和焦虑症状以及攻击行为的报告。潜在类别分析确定了四个青少年群体，他们的社区暴力暴露和内化和外化行为各不相同。两个社区暴力暴露程度较高的群体表现出内化症状或攻击行为；两个社区暴力暴露程度较低的群体表现出内化症状较轻、攻击性中等或所有症状中等。这些社区暴力调整类别在性别、社区暴力暴露史、行为抑制和战斗-逃跑-冻结系统方面有所不同。研究结果突出了经历社区暴力的青年在内化和外化反应方面的异质性，并提出了一些因素，这些因素可以解释社区暴力暴露、重复暴露以及对社区暴力暴露的反应。
