Associations between Community Violence and Academic Competency in Urban Elementary School Children

The overall goal of this dissertation is to assess the associations between exposure to community violence and academic achievement using a community-based sample of urban school children. Aim One of this dissertation assessed the joint effects of community violence exposure and the school context on academic achievement Propensity score weights were used to examine three pairwise comparisons. There were not significant differences in math proficiency between the high exposure to violence/low performing school group or the low exposure to violence/low performing school group. There were significant differences in math proficiency levels in the high exposure to violence/low performing school vs. high exposure to violence/high performing school and high exposure to violence/low performing school vs. low exposure to violence/high performing school comparisons. The mean differences from comparisons were comparable suggesting that most of the gains came from attending a high performing school. Aim Two examined the associations between academic, behavioral, and social competences on standardized test performance using a latent class framework. A three-class model was the best fitting solution for boys; the classes included a High Performing class, a Disruptive Behavior/Low Performing class, and a Low Social Skills/Low Performing class. Boys in the High Performing class performed better on their concurrent Reading and Math MSA standardized tests.. A three-class solution was also the best fitting model for the sample of girls; the classes included a High Performing class, a Poor Social Skill/Average Performing class, and an Internalizing/Average performing class. Boys in the High Performing class performed marginally better on the Reading and Math test than boys in the other two classes. Aim Three used latent class regression to examine significant predictors of the latent classes developed in Aim 2. For boys, community violence victimization was significantly associated with membership in the Disruptive Behavior/Low Performing class. For girls witnessing neighborhood violence and feelings of neighborhood safety were significantly associated with membership in the Poor Social Skills/Average Performing class. Witnessing community violence increased the risk of belonging to the Poor Social Skills/Average Performing class, but feeling safe in their neighborhood reduced the risk of belong to the Poor Social Skills/Average Performing class