Racial/Ethnic Differences in Assessing Pathways from Community Violence to Psychosocial Adjustment and Mental Health Service Use

• In Event: Poster Session 06
  In Poster Session: PS 06 Topic - Race, Ethnicity, Culture, Context

Abstract

Extant literature has demonstrated associations between exposure to community violence (ECV) and poorer mental health outcomes among youth including depressive and anxiety symptoms as well as aggressive and antisocial behaviors (Aisenberg & Mennen, 2000; Brady et al., 2008, Ceballo et al., 2003; Ford et al., 2010). Furthermore, it is well documented that when youth experience maladaptive behavioral outcomes, racial/ethnic disparities are prevalent in terms of mental health treatment engagement and utilization (Cauce et al., 2002; Gudiño et al., 2009; Martinez, Gudiño, & Lau, 2013). The present research utilizes preexisting data from the National Survey of Children’s Exposure to Violence III (NatSCEV III) to identify risk and protective factors that help explain the various pathways to psychological adjustment and mental health service use among youths, to better inform violence prevention and intervention efforts. Specifically, this research utilizes an ecological framework to assess the relationship between violence exposure and maladaptive behavioral outcomes and identify factors that buffer the adverse effects of violence. Lastly, this study also investigates how problem-type (internalizing versus externalizing) influences mental health service use. This study sample includes youths between the ages of 10 and 17 years (N = 1,861) that identified as African American (n = 155), Latinx (n = 187), or White (n = 1,519) and that had self-report data on the variables of interests. The data analytic strategy for this research includes a series of multigroup structural equation models to examine the relationship between violence exposure and psychological adjustment as well as the moderating effects of parent emotional engagement, peer emotional support, and race/ethnicity. The analytic objectives for the current study were achieved using RStudio statistical software (RStudio Team, 2016). The first model examining ECV and parent emotional engagement via a multigroup design indicated excellent fit to the data, χ2 = 153.154, df = 42, p < .001, CFI = .955, RMSEA = .069. Similarly, the ECV and peer support model also suggested an excellent fit to the data, χ2 = 184.287, df = 42, p < .001, CFI = .936, RMSEA = .078. Racial/ethnic differences in service use based on problem-type were assessed via comparisons between fully constrained models and unconstrained models for each of the multigroup models proposed. As hypothesized, findings indicated that across all racial/ethnic groups ECV was associated with increases in internalizing and externalizing symptoms (β = 0.59, p < 0.01; β = 0.58; p < 0.01, respectively). Parent engagement only moderated the relationship between ECV and externalizing symptoms among White youth (β = -0.11; p < .01). Peer emotional support was only found to moderate the relationship between internalizing symptoms and ECV among White youth (β = -0.04; p < .05). Internalizing and externalizing symptoms were significantly associated with mental health service use, but only for White youth (β = 0.20, p < 0.01; β = 0.06; p < 0.05, respectively). Integration of these findings are significant for the development of policy, theory building, and treatment services to better inform violence prevention and intervention efforts. Implications and future directions are discussed.

Authors

• Jose Arreola, University of California - Irvine
  Presenting Author

• Crystal Leanette Venegas, University of California - Los Angeles
  Non-Presenting Author

• Isabel Lopez, University of California, Santa Barbara
  Non-Presenting Author

• Patricia Orozco, California State University, Northridge
  Non-Presenting Author

• Daniel Saravia, California State University, Northridge
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jonathan Martinez, California State University, Northridge
  Non-Presenting Author