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The Resident-intruder Paradigm: A Standardized Test for Aggression, Violence and Social Stress
Published on: July 4, 2013
No safe haven: a study of violence exposure in an urban community
M E Schwab-Stone1, T S Ayers, W Kasprow
1Harris Program on Child Psychiatry, Child Development, and Social Policy, Yale Child Study Center, New Haven, CT 06520-7900, USA.
Objective:
To examine levels of violence exposure and reports of feeling unsafe in relation to psychological and behavioral characteristics for a general population sample of youths from an urban setting.
Method:
A comprehensive survey of high-risk behaviors, attitudes, indicators of adaptive behavior, and daily involvements was administered to a sample of 2,248 students in the 6th, 8th, and 10th grades in an urban public school system.
Results:
More than 40% of the youths surveyed reported exposure to a shooting or stabbing in the past year, and 74% reported feeling unsafe in one or more common environmental contexts. Multiple regression analyses indicated significant relationships between violence exposure/feeling unsafe and a set of indicators of psychological and behavioral adaptation and expressed attitudes.
Conclusions:
These results attest to the picture of violence as a common fact of inner-city life and to the demand that is placed on urban youths to accommodate in their psychological development to chronic threat and lack of safety.
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