Children's cognitive performance and selective attention following recent community violence

Abstract

Research has shown robust relationships between community violence and psychopathology, yet relatively little is known about the ways in which community violence may affect cognitive performance and attention. The present study estimates the effects of police-reported community violence on 359 urban children's performance on a computerized neuropsychological task using a quasi-experimental fixed-effects design. Living in close proximity to a recent violent crime predicted faster but marginally less accurate task performance for the full sample, evolutionarily adaptive patterns of "vigilant" attention (i.e., less attention toward positive stimuli, more attention toward negative stimuli) for children reporting low trait anxiety, and potentially maladaptive patterns of "avoidant" attention for highly anxious children. These results suggest that community violence can directly affect children's cognitive performance while also having different (and potentially orthogonal) impacts on attention deployment depending on children's levels of biobehavioral risk. Implications for mental health and sociological research are discussed.

Keywords: children; cognition; mental health; neighborhoods; violence.

Figure 1

Approximate Location^a of Participant Homes and Total Violent Crimes by 2000 Census Tract. ^aAlthough precise address location was used for actual analyses, dots in Figure 1 represent a random location in children's residential census tract to maintain confidentiality.

Figure 2

Predicted Means for Latency and 95% Confidence Intervals (CIs) across All Dot Probe Trials Based on Children's Treatment Status (Violent Crime within Half Mile, Seven Days) and Trait Anxiety. Note: Low anxiety represented as value of anxiety that is 1 standard deviation (SD) below sample mean; high anxiety represented as value of anxiety that is 1 SD above sample mean; although 95% CIs are overlapping, the interaction between treatment status and anxiety (measured continuously) is statistically significant at p ≤ .05. The simple slope of the effect of treatment status for low-anxiety children is also statistically significant at p ≤ .01. See Cumming and Finch (2005) for additional information regarding the interpretation of graphical CIs and statistical significance.

Figure 3

Predicted Means for Positive Facilitation (in Milliseconds) and 95% Confidence Intervals (CIs) Based on Children's Treatment Status (Violent Crime within a Half Mile, Seven Days) and Trait Anxiety. Note: Low anxiety represented as value of anxiety that is 1 standard deviation (SD) below sample mean; high anxiety represented as value of anxiety that is 1 SD above sample mean; although 95% CIs are overlapping, the interaction between treatment status and anxiety (measured continuously) is statistically significant at p ≤ .05. The simple slope of the effect of treatment status for high-anxiety children is also statistically significant at p ≤ .10. See Cumming and Finch (2005) for additional information regarding the interpretation of graphical CIs and statistical significance.

Figure 4

Predicted Means for Negative Facilitation (in Milliseconds) and 95% Confidence Intervals (CIs) Based on Children's Treatment (Violent Crime within an Eighth Mile, Four Days) and Trait Anxiety. Note: Low anxiety represented as value of anxiety that is 1 standard deviation (SD) below sample mean; high anxiety represented as value of anxiety that is 1 SD above sample mean; although 95% CIs are overlapping, the interaction between treatment status and anxiety (measured continuously) is statistically significant at p ≤ .05. The simple slope of the effect of treatment status for low-anxiety children is also statistically significant at p ≤ .05. See Cumming and Finch (2005) for additional information regarding the interpretation of graphical CIs and statistical significance.