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Emotional impact of children's exposure to community violence: a preliminary study
M R Cooley-Quille1, S M Turner, D C Beidel
1Department of Psychology, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA 22030-4444, USA.
Objective:
To use multiple methods and measures to investigate preliminarily the emotional impact of children's exposure to community violence.
Method:
Thirty-seven schoolchildren between the ages of 7 and 12 years were categorized into groups with "high" or "low" frequency of exposure.
Results:
Differing levels of exposure to community violence did not appear to have an impact on DSM-III-R diagnoses. Exposure to high levels of community violence was not related to internalizing behavior and disorders, but rather was associated with externalizing behavior.
Conclusions:
There appears to be an adverse relationship between high levels of exposure to community violence and emotional and conduct problems. Vicarious learning serves as an explanatory construct for these findings.