Exposure to violence and neighborhood affiliation among inner-city youth

Examined the prediction of exposure to violence by neighborhood affiliation in a sample of 167 inner-city adolescents (107 girls, 60 boys) age 14 to 19 years. Measures of exposure to violence, emotional and behavioral problems, and demographic information as well as a new neighborhood affiliation measure developed specifically for adolescents were administered. Adolescents reported fairly high rates of exposure to violence, supporting other recent research. Boys reported experiencing and witnessing significantly more violence than girls. In multiple regression analyses, higher neighborhood affiliation predicted greater exposure to violence at a trend level (p = .06), even when age, sex, length of residence in one's neighborhood, and concurrent emotional and behavioral problems were controlled. These findings suggest that greater affiliation or attachment to one's neighborhood may be an important risk factor for inner-city youth that should be investigated in larger samples.