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Adolescents’ exposure to community violence and associations with after-school activities across two samples.
Alers-Rojas et al., J Adolesc 2023
DOI: 10.1002/jad.12290
The study investigates the relationship between after-school activities and exposure to community violence (ECV) among urban adolescents in the United States. Two samples were analyzed: Study 1 with 1432 adolescents from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (1994-2002), and Study 2 with 537 adolescents from the After-School Activity Study (ASAS; 2015-2017) in Chicago and Detroit.
Key findings:
– Study 1 identified three ECV subgroups: “No ECV” (44%), “Low ECV” (36%), and “High Exposure” (14%).
– Study 2 found four ECV subgroups: “No ECV” (33%), “Moderate Witness/Low Victim” (36%), “High Witness/Moderate Victim” (19%), and “High ECV” (11%).
– In Study 2, home-based activities were protective against high ECV.
– School-based activities were linked to higher ECV in both studies.
– Community-based activities were associated with greater ECV only in Study 1.
– Unstructured socializing was consistently associated with higher ECV in both studies.
Importance: This research highlights the complexity of after-school activities as both risk and protective factors for ECV among adolescents. It underscores the need for nuanced approaches to after-school programming to mitigate the risk of violence exposure.
Contribution to Literature: The study contributes to the understanding of how different types of after-school activities are related to ECV, providing insights that could inform the development of targeted interventions to reduce adolescents’ exposure to violence.