This proposal hopes to accomplish two major goals: The first is to identify the relationship between chronic violence at the subsocietal level and variations in children's social/developmental well-being. The second goal is to identify a subset of "invulnerable" or "resilient" children, i.e., those who experience the same difficulties as their peers, but who somehow weather the storm. These resilient children will be investigated in a prospective way to determine what factors in their lives seem to protect them against succumbing to the maladaptive effects of violence on their development. This study will use across-sectional design to address its specific aims. Children (4th-6th grade) from school districts with high and low incidence of homocide will be selected. Children will complete measures of their perceptions of environmental violence and social support. Their parents and teachers will provide ratings of their social and emotional behavior.
