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Abstract
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VioLit summary:
OBJECTIVE:
The first aim of this study by Attar et al. was to examine the occurrence of three types of negative life events among African-American and Hispanic elementary school age boys and girls living in urban communities characterized by varying levels of a disadvantaged neighborhood. Secondly, the concurrent relations between the neighborhood disadvantage level, negative life events, and two indices of psychological adjustment, aggression and depression/anxiety was examined. Lastly, this study aimed to examine the relation of stress to subsequent aggression and school achievement.
METHODOLOGY:
A quasi-experimental survey was employed. Surveys on self-report data of stressful life events, peer ratings of aggression, teacher ratings of aggression and depression/anxiety, and academic achievement data were collected twice one year apart from 384 first, second, and fourth grade African American (n=220) and Hispanic children (n=164) and their teachers. The children were from six schools in a large midwestern city. Three of the cities were assessed to be at a high level of neighborhood disadvantage; the other three were rated as moderate neighborhood disadvantage. Neighborhood disadvantage was dependent on city wide statistics of crime, income level, housing, and employment.
The self-report and peer nominated assessment instruments were administered individually to first graders and by the classroom for second and fourth graders. In both the individual and classroom settings the trained investigator read each question aloud to the subjects. The stressful life events index included a 16 item self-report scale consisting of three subscales concerning events in the last year: circumscribed events (e.g., Did a family member die?), life transitions (e.g., Did you family move to a new home or apartment?), and exposure to violence (e.g., Has a family member been robbed or attacked?). The Peer-Nominated Aggression Scale was used to measure children's aggression. In this procedure, each child was administered a series of printed pages each listing the names of all the children in the classroom grouped by sex. The child was then asked to circle every name that fit the question at the top of the page (e.g., Who pushes and shoves other children?). A child's score ranges from 0-1 based on the number of times the child is nominated by other children divided by the total number of times the child could have been nominated. Teacher ratings of student's depression/anxiety and aggression were collected by a Child Behavior Checklist-Teacher Report Form. This scale included a list of 118 behavior-problem items that the teacher rated on a 3-point scale ranging from "not true"=0 to "very true"=2. Academic achievement was measured by the Reading and Math scales of the Iowa Test of Basic Skills. While reliability scores were not included for any of the above mentioned scales the authors cited all scales as reliable and valid. Statistical analysis included analysis of variance and multivariate analysis.
Predictions were made on two of the goals of this study. It was expected that children in the high-environmental stress conditions would report experiencing higher levels of life transitions and circumscribed events and as well as reporting having witnessed more violence than children in the moderate-stress condition. The second prediction suggested that there would be a positive relationship between total number of stressful events and both aggression and depression/anxiety, and that this relationship would be stronger under high neighborhood disadvantaged conditions.
FINDINGS/DISCUSSION:
The findings suggested that children living in high neighborhood disadvantaged communities reported experiencing significantly more stressors during the preceding year than did children living in the moderate neighborhood disadvantaged communities. Although the moderate group reported less stressors than the high group, they still reported a high number of stressful events compared to previous studies. The authors also found that first graders reported significantly more total stress than second graders and fourth graders; second graders reports of total stress did not differ from fourth graders. Reports of stress were also different by ethnicity but only for African American girls who reported significantly more stressors than any other group; the other groups did not differ significantly. A significant interaction effect between life transitions and grade indicated that life transitions were different by the grade level but only for children in the high neighborhood disadvantage group; first graders reported significantly more transitions than fourth graders, and first and second graders did not differ. Similarly, children in high neighborhood disadvantage reported significantly higher levels of circumscribed events than the moderate neighborhood disadvantaged group. For the exposure to violence scale, significant interactions were found between sex and grade and sex and neighborhood disadvantaged. These interaction effects revealed that first and second grade girls reported significantly more exposure to violence than fourth grade boys and that boys in the moderate neighborhood disadvantage group reported less exposure to violence than girls in the same moderate group and children in the high neighborhood disadvantaged group.
The multivariate analysis found that stressful life events in urban settings contribute significantly to children's aggressive behavior. Specifically, stressful life events were related to childrens' peer-nominated aggression at time 1 and predicted increases in teacher rated aggression at time 2. Exposure to violence predicted aggressive behavior at time 1 and time 2. Life transitions were related to aggression at time 1 and not at time 2. The findings also suggested that children living in the high neighborhood disadvantaged group were affected significantly by stressful events and exposure to violence. No relationship was found between stress and depression/anxiety. With the exception of stress not relating to depression and anxiety, the major findings concurred with previous findings.
(CSPV Abstract - Copyright © 1992-2007 by the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, Institute of Behavioral Science, Regents of the University of Colorado)
Child Development
Youth Development
Child Aggression
Child Witness
Child Victim
Hispanic Victim
Hispanic Child
Hispanic Witness
African American Victim
African American Child
African American Witness
Witnessing Community Violence
Neighborhood Environment
Neighborhood Violence
Urban Violence
Witnessing Violence Effects
Life Stress
Child Stress
Stress Effects
Sociocultural Factors
Socioeconomic Factors
Psychological Factors
Psychological Victimization Effects
Aggression Causes
Elementary School Student
School Performance
School Achievement
Middle Childhood
Late Childhood
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