Dataset Information

Perceived neighborhood violence and crime, emotion regulation, and PTSD symptoms among justice-involved, urban African-American adolescent girls.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

African-American adolescent girls in urban areas are overrepresented in the juvenile justice system, and they are also disproportionately impacted by neighborhood violence and crime (NVC), which has been shown to positively associate with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. Guided by an ecological (individual X context) perspective, the present study aimed to examine the main and interactive effects of perceived NVC and emotion regulation (ER) strategies in a sample of justice-involved, urban African-American adolescent girls (n = 85) following their release from detention centers.

Method

We investigated this research question longitudinally. Multiple linear regression models were conducted. PTSD symptoms at 3 months after release was used as the outcome variable, predicted by ER strategies, perceived NVC, and their interactions before release, controlling for PTSD symptoms and a brief screening of trauma events assessed beforen release. Simple slope analysis was used to probe significant interaction terms.

Results

The main effects of perceived NVC and dysfunctional ER were significant. A significant interaction effect was found between perceived NVC and internal dysfunction ER at baseline to predict PTSD symptoms at 3 months after release. High levels of internal dysfunctional ER intensified the positive association of baseline perceived NVC and PTSD symptoms.

Conclusions

Justice-involved African-American adolescent girls who report high NVC and use dysfunctional ER strategies are particularly vulnerable to the development of PTSD symptoms. Interventions with this population may benefit from targeting dysfunctional ER strategies to mitigate or prevent neighborhood violence related PTSD symptoms. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

SUBMITTER: Sun S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8324004 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Similar Datasets

Project description:BACKGROUND:Little is known about the impact of urbanicity, adverse neighborhood conditions and violent crime victimization on the emergence of adolescent psychotic experiences. METHODS:Participants were from the Environmental Risk (E-Risk) Longitudinal Twin Study, a nationally-representative cohort of 2232 British twins who were interviewed about adolescent psychotic experiences at age 18. Urbanicity, neighborhood characteristics, and personal victimization by violent crime were measured during childhood and adolescence via geocoded census data, surveys of over 5000 immediate neighbors of the E-Risk participants, and interviews with participants themselves. RESULTS:Adolescents raised in urban vs rural neighborhoods were significantly more likely to have psychotic experiences (OR = 1.67, 95% CI = 1.21-2.30, P = .002). This association remained significant after considering potential confounders including family socioeconomic status, family psychiatric history, and adolescent substance problems (OR = 1.43, 95% CI = 1.01-2.03, P = .042), but became nonsignificant after considering adverse social conditions in urban neighborhoods such as low social cohesion and high neighborhood disorder (OR = 1.35, 95% CI = 0.94-1.92, P = .102). The combined association of adverse neighborhood social conditions and personal crime victimization with adolescent psychotic experiences (adjusted OR = 4.86, 95% CI = 3.28-7.20, P < .001) was substantially greater than for either exposure alone, highlighting a potential interaction between neighborhood conditions and crime victimization (interaction contrast ratio = 1.81, 95% CI = -0.03 to 3.65) that was significant at the P = .054 level. CONCLUSIONS:Cumulative effects of adverse neighborhood social conditions and personal victimization by violent crime during upbringing partly explain why adolescents in urban settings are more likely to report psychotic experiences. Early intervention efforts for psychosis could be targeted towards victimized youth living in urban and socially adverse neighborhoods.

Project description:BackgroundAfrican-American adults experience the highest rates of elevated blood pressure (BP), and this disparity may be linked to socioeconomic and neighborhood-related disadvantage. Based on a bioecological stress-buffering framework, relations of poverty and neighborhood environmental perceptions with BP were assessed using multilevel regression in at-risk African-American adults.MethodsThis cross-sectional study used baseline data that were collected in 2008 as part of the Positive Action for Today's Health (PATH) trial (N = 409), a community-based intervention to increase walking in low-income, high-crime neighborhoods. BP and perceived neighborhood crime and satisfaction were investigated as individual-level indicators of health and neighborhood environment. Census block groups (N = 22) served as geographic proxies for neighborhoods, and poverty was obtained using 2010 U.S. Census data, to characterize the neighborhood-level socioeconomic environment.ResultsThere were no individual-level direct associations. Significant cross-product interactions demonstrated that with higher perceived crime, high satisfaction was associated with lower systolic (γ = 3.34) and diastolic (γ = -1.37) BP, but low satisfaction was associated with higher systolic (γ = 15.12) and diastolic (γ = 7.57) BP. Neighborhood-level poverty was associated with diastolic (γ = 11.48, SE = 4.08, P = 0.008) and systolic BP (γ = 12.79, SE = 6.33, P = 0.052). Variance in BP across block groups was low (intraclass correlation coefficients = 0.002-0.014) and there were no significant random effects.ConclusionsResults supported hypotheses, with greater neighborhood satisfaction linked to lower systolic and diastolic BP when perceived crime was high. Neighborhood poverty was also linked to higher systolic and diastolic BP. Prevention efforts should further investigate whether attending to issues of poverty and related neighborhood perceptions reduces high BP in at-risk African-American communities.