ASSESSING EXPOSURE TO VIOLENCE IN URBAN YOUTH

This study reports on the development of a structured interview, My Ex posure to Violence (My ETV), that was designed to assess child and you th exposure to violence. Eighty participants between the ages of 9 and 24 were assessed. Data from My ETV were fit to a Rasch model for rati ng scales, a technique that generates interval level measures and allo ws the characterization of both chronic and acute exposure. Results in dicated that the fit statistics for six scales, covering both lifetime and past year victimization, witnessing of violence, and total exposu re, were all good. These scales were found to have high internal consi stency (r=.68 to .93) and test-retest reliability (r=.75 to .94). Evid ence of construct validity was provided by the item analysis, which re vealed a theoretically sensible ordering of item extremity, and also b y analysis of bivariate associations. As expected, younger subjects ge nerally reported less exposure to violence than did older subjects, ma les reported more exposure than did females, African-American subjects reported higher levels of exposure than did White subjects, violent o ffenders reported more exposure than did non-offenders, and those livi ng in high crime areas reported more exposure than did those residing in low crime areas. Future areas of investigation and the potential co ntribution to studies of antisocial behavior and post-traumatic stress disorder are discussed.