Symptoms in Urban Adolescents

Ozer, Emily

Abstract

There is currently great concern regarding high rates of violence among American's adolescents, particularly those living in urban, low-income areas. Besides the risks of death and physical injury, many adolescents exposed to violence are likely to suffer from symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), depression, and other behavioral problems. The majority of trauma research, however, has been conducted with adults and only a few studies have studied adolescents' reactions to traumatic stress; of these, none has studies a school-based, normal population of urban adolescents. This study seeks to contribute to the study of developmental psychopathology and community violence by (a) identifying the individual and family demographic correlates of community violence exposure; (b) assessing the relation ship between symptoms of PTSD, depression, and behavioral problems in adolescents exposed to community violence; (c) specifying and differentiating the impact of dimensions of violence exposure on adolescent symptoms; and (d) investigating the relationship between social support (in family, peer, and school domains) and symptoms among adolescents exposed to violence. In addition, this research will also examine adolescents' attributions, regarding the causes of violent events and how others frame these experiences for adolescents in order to understand more about the psychological processes that may mediate the impact of violence exposure on adolescents' psychological functioning. Self-report and teacher- report data will be provided for a sample of 400 seventh grade students (aged 12-13) attending 2 public middle schools in urban settings where community violence is prevalent.