CHILD EXPOSURE TO VIOLENCE & PTSD ACROSS URBAN SETTINGS

描述(改编自申请人的摘要)： 芝加哥社区人类发展项目，6000名男性和 女性，初始年龄为1、4、7、10、13和16岁，居住在80岁 芝加哥的社区将与他们的照顾者一起在#年进行评估 为期4年的年度家庭课程。这六个年龄段 构成独立的重叠队列，将同时进行研究 在单一的纵向设计中。对这些儿童的评估将 确定他们遭受暴力的来源、频率和严重程度 以及这种暴露对随后的精神障碍的后果， 社交、心理、生理和学术功能。一个 纵向队列设计的重要特征是它是嵌入的 在社区研究中，社区的社会组织、学校 以及产生了多层次、多方法的环境测量的家庭 这些社会背景中的每一个都存在暴力。合并后的 纵向和社区设计是几年来 一个跨学科研究小组的推进工作，其中 从理论上衍生的邻里社会组织的衡量标准 实现了多层次、纵向研究的分析方法 开发和测试的设计，以及全面的测量协议 个人和家庭层面的风险因素组成和试点。 研究的目的既有描述性的，也有分析性的。这个 描述性目标是确定暴露的流行率和相关性 在大城市环境变化的背景下的暴力和创伤后应激障碍 在其社会阶级和民族构成上具有显著的特点 邻里关系。分析的目的与因果关系的检验有关 暴露在暴力和创伤后应激障碍以及其他精神疾病之间的联系， 以及对这种暴露的后果进行调查 儿童的认知、社交和学习功能。为了加强这一点 在人口层面的分析中，将对 以暴露于急性或慢性暴力为特征的亚样本。 这项工作的重点将是了解肾上腺 压力的调节，反映在唾液皮质醇的水平上，发挥了作用 调解创伤经历的后果。 这项研究有望促进目前对原因和 预防儿童创伤后应激障碍并改善计划和效果 在当地社区开展促进健康和预防暴力活动 水平。

DESCRIPTION (Adapted from applicant's abstract): Under auspices of the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods, 6,000 males and females, having the initial ages 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, and 16, and residing in 80 neighborhoods in Chicago will be assessed, along with their caregivers, in annual home-based sessions over a 4 year period. These six age groups constitute separate overlapping cohorts which will be studied simultaneously in a single longitudinal design. The assessments of these children will ascertain the source, frequency, and severity of their exposure to violence and the consequences of such exposure for subsequent psychiatric disorder, social, psychological, physiological, and academic functioning. An important feature of the longitudinal cohort design is that it is embedded in a community study of the social organization of neighborhoods, schools and families that has yielded multi-level, multi-method measures of ambient violence within each of these social contexts. The consolidation of longitudinal and community designs is the product of several years of advance work by an interdisciplinary group of researchers in which theoretically derived measures of neighborhood social organization have been achieved, the analytic methods for studying multi-level, longitudinal designs developed and tested, and a comprehensive protocol for measuring individual and family level risk factors composed and piloted. The aims of the study are of both a descriptive and analytic nature. The descriptive goals are to determine the prevalence and correlates of exposure to violence and PTSD in the context of a large urban environment varying markedly in the social class and ethnic group compositions of its neighborhoods. The analytic aims relate to an examination of the causal links between exposure to violence and PTSD and other psychiatric disorders, as well as to an investigation of the consequences of such exposure for the cognitive, social, and academic functioning of children. To augment this population-level analysis, a detailed assessment will be conducted of a subsample characterized by exposure to either acute or chronic violence. The focus of this effort will be on understanding the role that adrenal regulation of stress, as reflected in salivary levels of cortisol, plays in mediating the consequences of traumatic experiences. The study promises to advance current understanding of the causes and prevention of PTSD in children and to improve the planning and efficacy of health promotion and violence prevention activities at the local community level.