Parent awareness of adolescent exposure to violence: Health outcomes and protective factors

Background: Exposure to violence (EV) at a young age is associated with sexual risk, drug use, and fewer educational opportunities. Few studies have examined how parent-adolescent relationship factors and awareness of neighborhood violence is related to adolescent risk behavior.

Methods: The study sample was 99 male and female adolescents ages 14-17 and their parents/guardians in S. Florida. EV is a composite score derived from the City Stress Inventory which measures how often a family member or friend has been the victim of a violent attack. Parent factors (caring and closeness), and outcome measures (current sexual activity) came from an adapted AddHealth questionnaire. The other outcome measure, school expulsion, came from the Adolescent Drug Abuse Diagnosis.

Results: Parents reported significantly lower levels of EV (n=97, M=7.89) than adolescents (n=90, M=10.53) [t(182)=6.293, p<.0001]. A larger mean difference between parent and adolescent reports of violence was associated with higher levels of sexual activity (r=.407, p=.007) and school expulsions (r=.399, p=.003) among male adolescents. For both female and male adolescents, a smaller mean difference in parent and adolescent reports of violence was associated with higher levels of paternal caring (r=-.313, p=.014) and maternal closeness (r=-.313, p=.005).

Conclusion: When parents were less aware of their child's exposure to violence, male adolescents were more likely to be sexually active and have serious troubles in school. Developing interventions that focus on building a close, caring relationship between parent and child could ameliorate the effects of exposure to violence.