African American adolescents are exposed disproportionately to community violence, increasing their risk for emotional and behavioral symptoms that can detract from learning and undermine academic outcomes. The present study examined whether aggressive behavior and depressive and anxious symptoms mediated the association between exposure to…

The current study proposed that empathy may indirectly play a protective role for adolescents in drug use behaviors and that this relationship will be mediated by self-regulatory strategies found in drug refusal efficacy. We predict that empathy will be linked to prosocial behavior and aggression, though we do not believe that they will mediate…

Past research has shown that exposure to violence leads to aggressive behavior, but few community-based studies have examined theoretical models illustrating the mediating social cognitive processes that explain this relation with youth exposed to high rates of violence. This study examines the impact of community violence on behavior through…

Validity data are presented for a new measure of threat appraisals in response to community violence. Adolescents (N = 358; 45% male; 91% African American, M = 12.10 years, SD = 1.63) and their maternal caregivers participated in two waves of a longitudinal interview study focused on the consequences of exposure to community violence. Structural…

Contexts of risk for and protection from exposure to violence were identified and the relation of exposure to violence to delinquent behaviors and symptoms of trauma was examined. Using the Experience Sampling Method (ESM), the immediate daily experience of risky and protective contexts was examined. One hundred sixty-seven African American 6th-,…