TY - JOUR
T1 - Witnessed Community Violence and Antisocial Behavior in High-Risk, Urban Boys
AU - Miller, Laurie S.
AU - Wasserman, Gail A.
AU - Neugebauer, Richard
AU - Gorman-Smith, Deborah
AU - Kamboukos, Dimitra
PY - 1999
Y1 - 1999
N2 - Examined the longitudinal relation between children's self-report of witnessing, community violence, family environment, and parent report of child antisocial behavior in a sample of 6- to 10-year-old urban American boys (N = 97) at familial risk for antisocial behavior. Boys reported high rates of lifetime exposure to community violence. Boys' reports of witnessing community violence were significantly positively related to changes over 15 months in child antisocial behavior, even after controlling for the possible effects of 3 aspects of parent-child interactions shown previously to be related to problematic child behavior. Furthermore, family environment, particularly the degree to which parents engaged in conflict with their sons, moderated the effect of witnessed violence on changes in antisocial behavior. In families with low conflict, higher levels of witnessed violence predicted increases in antisocial behavior over time. In contrast, in families with relatively high levels of parent-child conflict, high-witnessed violence had no additional influence on antisocial outcome. This is the first prospective longitudinal study to document an association between witnessed community violence and changes in antisocial behavior in young, urban boys at familial risk for antisocial behavior.
AB - Examined the longitudinal relation between children's self-report of witnessing, community violence, family environment, and parent report of child antisocial behavior in a sample of 6- to 10-year-old urban American boys (N = 97) at familial risk for antisocial behavior. Boys reported high rates of lifetime exposure to community violence. Boys' reports of witnessing community violence were significantly positively related to changes over 15 months in child antisocial behavior, even after controlling for the possible effects of 3 aspects of parent-child interactions shown previously to be related to problematic child behavior. Furthermore, family environment, particularly the degree to which parents engaged in conflict with their sons, moderated the effect of witnessed violence on changes in antisocial behavior. In families with low conflict, higher levels of witnessed violence predicted increases in antisocial behavior over time. In contrast, in families with relatively high levels of parent-child conflict, high-witnessed violence had no additional influence on antisocial outcome. This is the first prospective longitudinal study to document an association between witnessed community violence and changes in antisocial behavior in young, urban boys at familial risk for antisocial behavior.
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U2 - 10.1207/s15374424jccp2801_1
DO - 10.1207/s15374424jccp2801_1
M3 - Article
C2 - 10070603
AN - SCOPUS:0033094542
SN - 1537-4416
VL - 28
SP - 2
EP - 11
JO - Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology
JF - Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology
IS - 1
ER -