PARENT AND CHILD EXPOSURE TO COMMUNITY VIOLENCE

社区暴力在美国是一个严重的问题。 对生活在社区暴力环境中的儿童及其遭受的创伤影响的研究相对较新（Cooley等人，1995; Garbarino等人，1992年）。 它主要侧重于非洲裔美国青少年（Hill和Madhere，1996年）。 对于目睹社区暴力对已经长期受到贫困压力的人口造成的心理、情感和行为创伤的影响，研究在很大程度上已经消退（Hill和Madhere，1996年）。 在暴露于社区暴力的学童中，对包括创伤后应激障碍在内的痛苦心理学知之甚少（Tyano等人，1996年）。 关于儿童应对社区暴力的人际背景的研究特别少（Aisenberg和Ell，综述）。 尚未对长期社区暴力和居住环境的影响进行系统研究（Osofsky和Scheeringa，1997年）。拟议的研究采用了两个阶段的评估程序，以检查行为，情感和心理上的影响，目睹社区暴力后，120拉丁裔和非洲裔美国人的母亲和他们的六年级和七年级的孩子在两个城市公立中学服务于同一个低收入，高犯罪率的社区在洛杉矶县。利用随机分层抽样设计，学生将根据性别和种族/民族分层，拟议的研究有五个具体目标。 它将：1）识别和测量不同种族/民族背景和性别的学生所经历的社区暴力的类型和频率，并基于母亲报告和学生自我报告探索差异; 2）基于学生和母亲的报告评估儿童痛苦心理学，即创伤后应激障碍，抑郁和焦虑; 3）根据自我报告，描述和确定母亲遭受社区暴力和其他形式暴力（如性虐待）的情况; 4）评估母亲的痛苦心理学，特别是创伤后应激障碍，抑郁和焦虑，和5）检查和比较母亲的心理学对儿童的心理学的中介作用。

Community violence is a serious problem throughout the United States. Research on children living in an environment of community violence and the traumatic effects they suffer is relatively new (Cooley et al., 1995; Garbarino et al., 1992). It has focused predominantly on African-American youngsters (Hill and Madhere, 1996). Research has largely faded to take into account the psychological, emotional, and behavioral effects of the trauma of witnessing community violence on populations that are already chronically stressed by poverty (Hill and Madhere, 1996). Little is known about distress symptomatology, including PTSD, among school children exposed to community violence (Tyano et al., 1996). Research on the interpersonal context of children coping with community violence has been particularly sparse (Aisenberg and Ell, in review). Systematic research has not yet been conducted on the effects of chronic community violence and the caregiving environment (Osofsky and Scheeringa, 1997). The proposed study uses a two-stage assessment procedure to examine the behavioral, emotional, and psychological effects of witnessing community violence upon 120 Latino and African-American mothers and their sixth and seventh grade children at two urban public middle schools serving the same low income, high crime neighborhood in Los Angeles County. Utilizing a random stratified sampling design in which students will be stratified according to gender and race/ethnicity, the proposed study has five specific aims. It will: 1) identify and measure the type and frequency to community violence experienced by students of different racial/ethnic backgrounds and gender and explore differences based on maternal reports and student self-reports; 2) assess child distress symptomatology, namely, PTSD, depression and anxiety, based on reports from students and mothers; 3) describe and identify maternal exposure to community violence and other forms of violence such as sexual abuse based on self-reports; 4) assess maternal distress symptomatology, specifically PTSD, depression, and anxiety, and 5) examine and compare the mediating effects of the mother's symptomatology upon the child's symptomatology.