Polyvictimization, Related Symptoms, and Familial and Neighborhood Contexts as Longitudinal Mediators of Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Violence Exposure Across Adolescence

Abstract

African American and Hispanic adolescent experience more violence exposure relative to White youth. The present study examined the mediating role of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS), delinquency, earlier victimization, and familial and neighborhood factors in disparities in future victimization. The study utilized data from the National Survey of Adolescents-Replication (N = 3,312), which consists of three waves of data collected approximately 1 year apart. A series of path models, tested polyvictimization, PTSS, delinquency, familial socioeconomic factors, and neighborhood safety as mediators of disparities in new polyvictimization. All cross-lagged and autoregressive paths positively predicted past-year polyvictimization and mediated longitudinal disparities. Familial socioeconomic variables and neighborhood safety mediated initial violence exposure disparities. Overall, results indicate that prior violence exposure, related mental health symptoms, and familial and neighborhood factors account for significant portions of disparities in new violence exposure across adolescence.

Keywords: Mental health; Prospective/longitudinal; Racial/ethnic disparities; Violence victimization.

Figure 1.

The cross-lagged and autoregressive path model depicting longitudinal disparities in violence exposure cascades. Gray lines depict non-significant paths. Black lines depict significant paths. All significant paths formed part of significant indirect, or mediational, paths. All significant relations displayed here are positive (e.g., higher polyvictimization at Wave 2 predicts higher polyvictimization at Wave 3). The figure is based on a path model examining cascades in violence exposure and related symptoms. PTSS-Posttraumatic stress symptoms.

Figure 2.

This shows the potential mediational roles of head of household education, head of household marital status, poverty, caregiver perceptions of safety, and caregiver perceptions of community order and resources. Poverty and head of household marital status were categorical variables with dichotomous coding reflecting poverty (1) vs. non-poverty (0) groups and married (1) vs. not married (0). For all other variables, higher scores represent higher degrees of the construct represented (e.g., higher perceived safety). Positive relations are indicated by ‘+’ and negative relations are indicated by ‘−’ above each significant path. Significant paths are bolded in black and non-significant paths are gray. Additionally, gender and age were also examined as covariates but are not displayed here. The cross-lagged and auto-regressive relationships between violence and related symptoms at follow-up assessments (i.e., the violence and symptom cascades) were also included in this model, but are not displayed here in order to enhance clarity in the mediational roles here. The autoregressive and cross-lagged configuration is the same as the one depicted in Figure 1.