Article Summary
Boxer, P., Morris, A., Terranova, A., Kithakye, M., Savoy, S., & Mcfaul, A. (2008).
Coping with exposure to violence: Relations to emotional symptoms and aggression in three urban samples. Journal of Child and Family Studies 17(6), 881.
While there is ample evidence to suggest a strong link between exposure to violence and negative psychological and behavioral outcomes, few studies have tested the effect of exposure to violence on the pathways to maladjustment (Boxer et al., 2008). The authors used data from three urban after-school programs in low-income neighborhoods to examine the role of avoidant coping and aggressive cognition in the link between exposure to violence and aggression and distress. They tested two theoretical pathways to maladjustment: The first was the normalization pathway to aggressive behavior. In this model, exposure to community violence leads to aggression through desensitization and acceptance of violence as normative, and therefore, morally acceptable. Normalization, in turn, leads to greater engagement in aggressive behaviors. The second pathway is the distress pathway. In this model, exposure to community violence causes emotional distress and the need to utilize avoidant coping mechanisms. Avoidant coping has been associated with more generalized emotional symptoms (such as high anxiety and depression) (see Dempsey, 2002). The findings provide qualified support for both models, and they indicate that the normalizing pathway is more likely to be accounted for by witnessing frequent violence, whereas the distress pathway is more likely to be prompted by frequent victimization.
Additional References:
Dempsey, M. (2002). Negative coping as mediator in the relation between violence and outcomes: Inner-city African American youth. American Journal of
Orthopsychiatry 72, 102–109.
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