Violence in Context: Effects of Personal Networks and Neighborhood Context on Trajectories of Youth Violence

• In Event: Contexts of Delinquency, Crime, and Victimization

Abstract

The exposure to violence persists to be wide-ranging and salient among children. Thus, the experience of violence through interpersonal relationships and the broader social context shapes children’s emotional development and role stress as adolescent and young adult. Taking into account the person-level and contextual dimensions of violence across the early life course of children allows us to disentangle the implications of violence during the crucial transitions from adolescence to young adulthood. We use data of the Kaplan Longitudinal and Multigenerational Study (KLAMS) of two generations with parallel measures of violence in two generations. We assess violent victimization (e.g., measuring the violence of the immediate interpersonal context) and violent acts committed within one’s personal network. In the context of the role stress model embedded in the life course we further investigate whether and how neighborhood context moderates these violent person-level relationships. Inside the role stress model of mental health studies show that certain stressors within the larger context of disadvantaged circumstances negatively impact children’s violent and emotional behaviors. We therefore explore the proximate and distant stressors and their effects on children as they transition from adolescence (ages 11-18) to young adulthood (ages 20-14).

Authors

• Heili Pals, Texas A&M

• Gabriele Plickert, Cal Poly Pomona