Work

The Latent Threat of Community Violence: Indirect Exposure to Local Homicides and Adolescents’ Mental Health in Colombia

Year: 2019

Type: article

Abstract: This study examines the relation between adolescents’ indirect exposure to local homicides and mental health disorders and post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. We employ a sample of 300 adolescents ( representative for Bogotá, Colombia, and geocoded data on violent crimes recorded by the national police. Findings show that one SD increment in local homicides is associated with increments by 0.17 SD in the mental health disorder index and a 0.14 SD increase in the PTSD score index, even after accounting for adolescents’ direct exposure to violence. The estimated effect for PTSD was larger for adolescents’ who were directly exposed to violence and for those living in multidimensionally poor households, whereas no detectable effects were found for adolescents who perceived their residential neighborhood as relatively safe.

Source: American Journal of Community Psychology

DOI: 10.1002/ajcp.12335

Authors: Jorge Cuartas, Amanda L. Roy

Institutions: Harvard University, University of Illinois Chicago

Language: English

Topic: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research

Subfield: Clinical Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Good health and well-being, Peace, justice, and strong institutions

Open Access status: green

Funders: National Institutes of Health, National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences