Exposure to drug trafficking among urban, low-income African American children and adolescents

Objective: To examine the association between exposure to drug trafficking (selling or delivering drugs) and exposure to other forms of community viol ence and risk behaviors among urban, low-income African American children a nd adolescents. Design: Community-based, cross-sectional survey. Setting: Ten public housing developments in a large eastern city in the Uni ted States. Participants: Three hundred forty-nine urban, low-income African American c hildren and adolescents (198 boys and 151 girls), aged 9 to 1.5 years. Main Outcome Measures: Exposure to drug trafficking and other forms of comm unity violence (as either a victim or a witness), risk behaviors/perception s including risk-taking/delinquency, drug use, perpetration of violence or other crimes, threats to school achievement, and perceived peer involvement . Analysis: Exploratory factor analysis was performed to examine whether expo sure to drug trafficking is a risk factor that is distinct from other expos ure to violence. Multivariate analysis of variance and chi(2) tests were pe rformed to assess the relationship between exposure to drug trafficking and other forms of community violence and risk behaviors/perceptions. Results: Of 349 participants, 63 (18%) had been asked to traffic drugs and 134 (35%) had seen someone else being asked to traffic drugs. Factor analys is indicates that exposure to drug trafficking appears to be different from other forms of community violence. However, having been asked and having s een other people being asked to traffic drugs were both strongly associated with exposure to other forms of community violence. Compared with children and adolescents who had not been exposed to drug trafficking, those who we re exposed to drug trafficking reported more risk-taking and delinquent beh aviors, drug use, threats to achievement, and a perception of more peer inv olvement in these risk behaviors. Conclusion: Exposure to drug trafficking is a unique risk fatter that is st rongly associated with exposure to other forms of community violence and in volvement in other risk behaviors.