The impact of intrafamilial and community violence on children\u27s psychological adjustment and academic achievement

The present study explored the relationship among measures of intrafamilial and community violence and various indices of adjustment including posttraumatic stress symptoms, internalizing and externalizing symptoms, and academic achievement in a non-random sample of 73 urban, middle school youth. Self-reports of violence exposure revealed high rates of both direct victimization and witnessing of potentially lethal forms of community violence. Results of hierarchical multiple regression analyses indicated that community violence victimization was significantly related to self-reported trauma symptoms, self-reported externalizing behaviors including aggression, attention problems, and delinquency, as well as self-reported internalizing symptoms after controlling for gender. Associations between family violence exposure variables and outcome variables of trauma symptoms, internalizing behavior, externalizing behavior, and academic achievement were generally weaker and more complex. The significance and implications of the study are also examined