Neighborhood Violence and Low Academic Achievement Among African -American Males

Exposure to neighborhood violence, school violence and parental support variables were examined as predictors of student fear on the way to and from school on and academic achievement. In this paper, Spencer's Phenomenological Variant Ecological Systems Theory (PVEST) is used as a springboard for exploring the relationship between exposure to neighborhood violence and school outcomes. Leveraging rich data from the School Success Profile, the current research builds on existing work by examining factors that mediate the relationship between violence exposure and school-related outcomes (grades, behavior at school, and satisfaction with school) among ninth grade African American males who are in the critical transition period to high school. The findings point to the direct effect neighborhood crime and violence has on school outcomes such as homework completion, school satisfaction and grades for African-American adolescent males. These relationships are mediated through parental support for youth exposed to neighborhood violence.