Stability and Change in Patterns of Youth Violence Exposure: A Latent Transition Analysis

• In Event: Effects of Exposure to Violence

Abstract

Several types of violence exposure have been described in the literature but few studies have examined the structural stability of distinctive patterns of violence exposure over time. The purpose of this study is to address this gap in the literature using longitudinal data from a probability sample of 4,824 children (at ages 10, 12, and 15 years). Latent class and latent transition analysis are used to address three study goals: First, the identification of latent classes of youth violence exposure at each assessment time; second, testing for potential differential item functioning of the nine violence exposure items across gender and three racial/ethnic groups (Black, Latino, and White children); third, examining the structural stability and change of latent classes of youth violence exposure across the three assessment times. Results supported a three-class solution (i.e., low, moderate, high violence exposure) for each assessment time. Second, there was scarce evidence of differential item functioning. Third, stability of class membership across time was considerably higher for the low and moderate violence exposure classes compared to the high violence exposure class. Implications of the findings for theory and applied purposes will be discussed.

Authors

• Margit Wiesner, University of Houston

• Marc N. Elliott, RAND Corporation

• Terri Lewis, University of Colorado, Denver

• Paula Cuccaro, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston

• Sylvie Mrug, University of Alabama at Birmingham

• Sara L. Toomey, Boston Children's Hospital / Harvard Medical School

• Susan Tortolero, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston

• Mark A. Schuster, Boston Children's Hospital / Harvard Medical School