Poster #147 - Parental Nurturing and Emotional Desensitization in Youth Exposed to Community Violence

• In Event: 2-055 - Poster Session 06
  In Poster Session: PS 06 Section - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Integrative Statement

Exposure to violence in children and adolescents has been linked with emotional desensitization, indicated by a curvilinear relationship between violence exposure and depressive symptoms (increased symptoms at moderate levels of exposure followed by a decline of symptoms as exposure increases) (Mrug, Loosier, & Windle, 2008). This pattern of desensitization has been linked with increased future violent behavior (Mrug, Madan, & Windle, 2016), underscoring the importance of identifying protective factors that may prevent desensitization in youth exposed to violence. Parental warmth or nurturance has been found to protect against internalizing symptoms for youth exposed to violence (Affrunti, Geronimi, & Woodruff-Borden, 2014; Sheeber, Hops, & Davis, 2001), but its role in emotional desensitization has not been studied. Thus, we investigated whether parental nurturance buffers youth against emotional desensitization to violence.
This study utilized data from 525 adolescents who participated in Wave 2 of the Birmingham Youth Violence Study (Mage 13.1; 78% African American, 22% Caucasian; 52% Male, 48% Female). Youth reported on their depressive symptoms, parental nurturance, and violence exposure at home, school and community settings. Multiple regression analysis tested linear and curvilinear relationships between violence exposure and depressive symptoms, as well as the moderating effects of parental nurturance on these effects. Child gender, ethnicity, and household income were included as covariates.
Results indicated that female gender and greater violence exposure were uniquely related to depressive symptoms (β= .15, p < .001 and β= .41, p < .001). The quadratic effect of violence exposure was not significant (β=-.04, p =.293). Similarly, parental nurturance did not moderate the relationship between the linear or quadratic effects of violence exposure and depression (β= .01, p =.761 and β= -.01, p =.801).
Results indicate that adolescents exposed to violence experience more depressive symptoms, with no evidence of emotional desensitization. Additionally, parental nurturance was not protective against the effects of violence exposure on depressive symptoms, nor did it moderate the nonsignificant emotional desensitization effect. Future research should be examine these relationships using longitudinal design, and include other possible protective factors for the effects of violence exposure on youth depression, such as family cohesion, peer support or school connectedness.

Authors

• Maria Martino, Ball State University
  Presenting Author

• Sylvie Mrug, University of Alabama at Birmingham
  Non-Presenting Author

• Catheryn Orihuela, University of Alabama at Birmingham
  Non-Presenting Author