Exposure to violence, depression, and hostility in a sample of inner city high school youth

This study examines the prevalence of violence in a non-randomly selected population of 337 inner city school students, the relationship between exposure to violence and symptoms of depression and hostility, and demographic differences in exposure to and effects of traumatic violence. Students responded to an anonymous survey asking them to enumerate how many times they had experienced each of six types of traumatic violence. Sixty-two per cent of students were exposed to an average of 3.0541 of the six types of violence listed. Exposure to most types of violence were highly intercorrelated. Males experienced more exposure to violence than females. Exposure to violence was predictive of hostility for both gender groups, and predictive of depression for females. Implications of exposure to traumatic violence on adolescent development are discussed.