Patterns of Violence Exposure Before and After COVID: Connections with Externalizing Behaviors
Disciplines
Developmental Psychology
Abstract (300 words maximum)
Adolescent exposure to violence (ETV) has been shown to be related to a host of negative youth outcomes, including poorer mental and physical health, desensitization to violence, increased externalizing, and lower educational attainment. The COVID-19 pandemic had a substantial impact on adolescents’ lives, including family, school, and social contexts (Loades et al., 2020). Concerns were also raised regarding the potential for increases in ETV during COVID restrictions (Ragavan et al., 2020). Research on pre/post COVID differences in ETV remains limited even nearly 4 years after the World Health Organization declared a “global health emergency.” This study uses data from the Arizona Youth Survey (AYS) to compare patterns of ETV pre-COVID (2018) and post-COVID (2020), as well as whether these patterns of ETV are differentially related to youths' externalizing behavior.
AYS is a school-based biennial survey conducted with 8th, 10th, and 12th grade students across the state of Arizona. Students reported their demographics, behavior, and family, school, and community risk and protective factors based on the Communities that Care student survey. This study used latent class analysis to identify patterns of ETV and their relations with externalizing.
We found 6 classes of youth ETV, differentiated by the extent and type of violence exposure. Patterns of ETV were similar pre- and post-COVID, as were their relations with externalizing behavior. One class with higher ETV had moderate externalizing. There were no clear differences in rates of externalizing when comparing pre- and post-COVID classes.
ETV during critical developmental periods can have a lasting impact on wellbeing and development (Mueller & Tronick, 2019). Our analyses did not find substantial differences in patterns of ETV before and after the COVID pandemic. Current prevention and intervention efforts may benefit from understanding the unique psychosocial risk and protective factors of youth who exhibit low externalizing despite high ETV.
Academic department under which the project should be listed
RCHSS - Psychological Science
Primary Investigator (PI) Name
Chanler Hilley
Patterns of Violence Exposure Before and After COVID: Connections with Externalizing Behaviors
Adolescent exposure to violence (ETV) has been shown to be related to a host of negative youth outcomes, including poorer mental and physical health, desensitization to violence, increased externalizing, and lower educational attainment. The COVID-19 pandemic had a substantial impact on adolescents’ lives, including family, school, and social contexts (Loades et al., 2020). Concerns were also raised regarding the potential for increases in ETV during COVID restrictions (Ragavan et al., 2020). Research on pre/post COVID differences in ETV remains limited even nearly 4 years after the World Health Organization declared a “global health emergency.” This study uses data from the Arizona Youth Survey (AYS) to compare patterns of ETV pre-COVID (2018) and post-COVID (2020), as well as whether these patterns of ETV are differentially related to youths' externalizing behavior.
AYS is a school-based biennial survey conducted with 8th, 10th, and 12th grade students across the state of Arizona. Students reported their demographics, behavior, and family, school, and community risk and protective factors based on the Communities that Care student survey. This study used latent class analysis to identify patterns of ETV and their relations with externalizing.
We found 6 classes of youth ETV, differentiated by the extent and type of violence exposure. Patterns of ETV were similar pre- and post-COVID, as were their relations with externalizing behavior. One class with higher ETV had moderate externalizing. There were no clear differences in rates of externalizing when comparing pre- and post-COVID classes.
ETV during critical developmental periods can have a lasting impact on wellbeing and development (Mueller & Tronick, 2019). Our analyses did not find substantial differences in patterns of ETV before and after the COVID pandemic. Current prevention and intervention efforts may benefit from understanding the unique psychosocial risk and protective factors of youth who exhibit low externalizing despite high ETV.