Poster #149 - Gun Violence Exposure and Adolescent Outcomes in the FFCWS

• In Event: Poster Session II (posters 80 – 155)

Abstract

This dissertation examines community gun violence exposure and police contact as contextual forms of threat during adolescence and their implications for behavioral outcomes in early adulthood. Firearm-related injuries remain one of the leading causes of death among U.S. adolescents, with disproportionately high rates among Black, Hispanic/Latino, and American Indian/Alaskan Native youth. Building on the Dimensional Model of Adversity and Psychopathology (DMAP) and the Adverse Adolescent Experiences (AAE) framework, this study conceptualizes neighborhood gun violence and police contact as ecological and institutional threat exposures that shape adolescent development through distinct emotional and behavioral pathways. Using data from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study linked with geocoded Gun Violence Archive incidents, this study evaluates whether incorporating community-level adversities improves the measurement and predictive validity of the threat dimension within DMAP. Perceived safety and emotion dysregulation at age 15 are examined as mechanisms linking threat exposure to later behavioral outcomes, while neighborhood collective efficacy is tested as a protective moderating factor. Findings contribute to expanding developmental frameworks of adversity by integrating contextual and institutional stressors salient during adolescence.

Author

• Rachel Colello, University of California, Irvine