Many factors contribute to the social, psychological, and health problems experienced by women and their young children who live in high-crime neighborhoods. This two-year cross sectional study evaluates 250 mothers and their preschool children receiving care at the Boston City Hospital pediatric department, which serves mostly indigent ethnic minority families. We explore the contribution of community violence (perceptions of danger and social disorder and individual victimization by non-family members) on measures of functioning including: women's global and posttraumatic stress-related symptoms, perceptions of health problems, and health utilization; child behavior problems and posttraumatic-stress related symptoms. Covariates include early history of trauma for mother and child, and substance and alcohol use in the women. Hypothesized mediating variables include partner's aggression against women and children, and maternal practices. The intergenerational sample resides in three high crime neighborhoods in the City of Boston, as identified by local enforcement's latest statistics for seven violent crimes. Names, addresses, and telephone numbers of potential subjects with postal zipcodes corresponding to target neighborhoods will be obtained via a randomized search of medical charts of pediatric patients in an ambulatory primary clinic at Boston City Hospital. Data collection will be accomplished via home visiting by two research visitors. The protocol includes questionnaires administered in an interview format, and videotaped observations of mother-child interaction during free play and during a clean-up task. Measures include perceived danger and social disorder, neighborhood attachment and local informal ties, current psychological symptoms and health problems, mother and child behavior problems, and posttraumatic stress related symptomatology. Maternal interactive measures include sensitivity, control, and unresponsiveness; child measures include cooperation, compulsive-compliant, difficultness, and passivity. Structural analytical procedures will be used to assess the direct and indirect relationships among measures of community violence, mediated by family aggression and maternal interactive practices, and aspects of woman and child functioning. This research will advance the understanding of the direct contribution of community violence on crucial outcomes in today's most vulnerable mother-child dyads.
| Linares, L O; Heeren, T; Bronfman, E et al. (2001) A mediational model for the impact of exposure to community violence on early child behavior problems. Child Dev 72:639-52 |
| Linares, L O; Groves, B M; Greenberg, J et al. (1999) Restraining orders: a frequent marker of adverse maternal health. Pediatrics 104:249-57 |
