Intersections of Community Violence Exposure, Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms, and Alcohol and Marijuana Use Among...

Community violence exposure (CVE) is an understudied facet of traumatic experiences, and much of the relatively limited literature investigating outcomes associated with CVE, such as Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms (PTSS) and substance use, have centered other trauma types and overlooked differences related to sex, race, and ethnicity. With respect to CVE, direct victimization or CVE broadly has often been the focus. Regarding substance use, alcohol use has been the primary substance studied in the literature, and marijuana has been relatively understudied.

Considering these gaps, the present study investigated the associations between CVE, PTSS, and alcohol and marijuana use among a young adult sample of 517 participants with each construct examined multidimensionally.

Findings revealed that witnessing and being victimized by community violence were both significantly associated with alcohol and marijuana use as well as PTSS, with additional analyses exploring variation by sex, race, and ethnicity; Black and Hispanic/Latine young people reported disparate exposure to community violence, and sex differences emerged in reports of CVE and PTSS. Interestingly, associations among constructs varied between different domains of CVE (victimization and witnessing) and alcohol and marijuana use (initiation, frequency, and related problems). Lastly, we examined PTSS as both a mediator and moderator of the relationships between CVE and alcohol and marijuana use and found significant mediation effects.

Results highlight the need for multifaceted considerations of CVE, PTSS, and alcohol and marijuana use and call for further attention to be devoted to these relatively understudied constructs and associated translational outcomes.