Community Violence Exposure and Positive Youth Development in Urban Adolescents

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Adolescents in urban environments are exposed to staggering proportions of community violence which affects their physical and emotional well-being. Consequences of community violence exposure include depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress and aggression, and likely add to health disparities. Research shows that posttraumatic stress may mediate the relationship between community violence exposure and negative mental health outcomes. Posttraumatic stress responses can be considered both normative and pathological, and this duality makes the potential role of posttraumatic stress as a mediator between community violence exposure and outcomes intriguing. If young people are the future of society, exposure to community violence and its ramifications is unacceptable and demands innovative solutions. This proposed study will focus on positive youth development in the context of community violence. The positive youth development perspective can help to inform the design of future interventions that enhance the development of potentially vulnerable and often marginalized youth. Positive youth development expands knowledge beyond the absence of problem behaviors or pathology, to the presence of healthy development. The goal of this training plan is to gain a better understanding of the relationship between community violence exposure, posttraumatic stress and positive youth development in urban adolescents. The purpose of this proposed study is to use a quantitative cross-sectional research design to specifically examine the effects of posttraumatic stress in the relationship between community violence exposure and positive youth development in 110 community-dwelling urban adolescents, ages 13-17. The specific aims of this study are to: 1). Describe the level of community violence exposure, posttraumatic stress, and indicators of positive youth development among urban adolescents: 2). Examine the relationships between community violence exposure, posttraumatic stress, and positive youth development: and 3.) Explore the combined effects of community violence exposure and posttraumatic stress on positive youth development. This proposal addresses community violence exposure, a known public health problem for urban youth. Research conducted through this fellowship will include collection of data from community-dwelling adolescents in order to gain an understanding of the impact of community violence exposure on positive youth development in urban adolescents. Results of this study not only can contribute to public health, but also address NINR's mission and strategic goals by elucidating mechanisms underlying health disparities in urban adolescents.