Acute and Enduring Consequences of Exposure to Violence on Youth Mental Health and Aggression

The bulk of neighborhood effects research examines the impact of neighborhood conditions cross-sectionally. However, it is critical to understand whether the effects of neighborhood context are situational and whether they endure over time. In this study, the authors take seriously the notion that there are enduring consequences of exposure to deleterious neighborhood conditions. Using a rich set of longitudinal data on adolescents from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods, the authors estimate the effect of exposure to violence on both internalizing depression and anxiety and externalizing problems aggression. The authors found that exposure to violence has both an acute and enduring effect on aggression, yet no effect on anxiety-depression, net of individual, family, peer, and neighborhood influences. Part of the enduring effect of violence exposure is explained by changes in social cognitions brought on by the exposure, yet much of the relationship remains to be explained by other causal mechanisms. Abstract published by arrangement with Taylor and Francis.