Exposure to Violence and Adolescent Use of Substances: Do Family Practices in High Risk Urban Communities Moderate Outcomes

Overview: Urban youth are disproportionately exposed to violence and consequent negative social and health outcomes. Examination of potential protective factors across the social ecology is needed. Purpose: To investigate moderating effects of parenting on the relationship between violence exposure and youth substance use. Method: Data -- CDC's “Youth Violence Survey: Linkages Among Different Forms of Violence” . Dependent variables: any past year alcohol or drug use and binge drinking. Independent variables: exposure to community violence (ETV), perceptions of parental supervision, curfew setting, and emotional support. Control variables: age, sex, race/ethnicity, maltreatment history, depression, perpetration of peer violence, and perceptions of peer alcohol use. Analyses: Logistic regression analyses examined (1) association between ETV and alcohol and other drug (AOD) use and binge drinking, and (2) whether parenting factors moderated the association between ETV and substance use behaviors. Results: Forty-five percent witnessed beatings, 22.8% witnessed stabbings or shootings; 53.5% and 24% reported AOD consumption and binge drinking, respectively. After controlling for confounders, logistic regression models indicated that ETV was significantly and positively related to AOD use and binge drinking. Parental supervision was inversely related to AOD use and binge drinking; while curfew was related to AOD use only. Significant interactions between ETV and parenting variables were not found. Conclusion: The aforementioned parenting characteristics did not moderate risk between exposure to community violence and youth substance use behaviors in this urban sample of adolescents. Additional research is needed to identify factors that buffer the negative social burden of community violence on health.