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Article Summary

Salzinger, S., Feldman, R. S., Rosario, M., & Ng-Mak, D. S. (2010).
Role of parent and peer relationships and individual characteristics in middle school children’s behavioral outcomes in the face of community violence. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 21(2), 395–407. doi:10.1111/j.1532-7795.2010.00677.x

The authors of this study identified and researched levels of relationships thought to encourage risky exposure to violence, as well as some potential protective factors that can mitigate such exposure. The study’s findings offer a good theoretical basis for the establishment of intervention programs. The authors have developed two separate models for internalizing and externalizing behavior problems since exposure leads to two separate outcomes and therefore may require developing different ways of intervention. The first model that predicts internalizing behavior outcomes included the social and emotional support as a variable thought likely to protect against negative outcomes. The model predicting externalizing problem outcomes included parental attachment due to the deep-rooted understanding that delinquent behavior is correlated to negative caretaker-child relationship. The study observed the impact that exposure to community violence has on middle-school children over the course of 3 years. The authors conducted the study using a sample of 667 New York City middle-school children from a district that had recorded the city’s highest crime rates and violence. Families (n=546) were also included in the study. Using an ecological framework model, Salzinger and colleagues hypothesized various risk and protective factors from three ecological domains: parent relationships, peer relationships, and individual characteristics. According to the authors, children experience these domains concurrently. Early adolescence is when children increasingly gain more independence from parents and seek a wider network of peer support, becoming more susceptible to the influence of friends. In fact, the study found that strong peer relationships are more significant protective factors than strong parent relationships in protecting against negative outcomes. However, having delinquent friends and approving of their aggressive behavior increased the risk that youth will have future externalizing problems, while attachment to parents lowered that risk.