Community violence exposure and associated behavior problems among children and adolescents in residential treatment

Community violence exposure is increasingly recognized as playing an important role in the presenting behavioral profiles of children and adolescents, although little is known about the specific role played among children and adolescents served in mental health settings. This cross-sectional study reports findings on the lifetime rates of community violence exposure in a sample of 101 children and adolescents living in residential treatment, and the associations between such exposure and their presenting behavior problems. A total of 41% of the study participants reported they had been severely physically victimized, and 80% stated they had witnessed severe physical victimization. After controlling for background variables, hierarchical regression analyses indicated that sexual victimization and, to a lesser degree, personal physical victimization selectively predicted greater behavior problems, whereas witnessed physical violence predicted fewer behavior problems overall. These findings highlight a need to conduct multidimensional assessments of violence exposure among children and adolescents in residential and other mental health settings.