VIOLENCE EXPOSURE AND EMOTIONAL TRAUMA AS CONTRIBUTORS TO ADOLESCENTSVIOLENT BEHAVIORS

Objective: To investigate the degree to which violence exposure and sy mptoms of psychological trauma are related to adolescents' own violent behaviors. Design and getting: Anonymous self-report questionnaire ad ministered to students in 6 public high schools (grades 9-12). Partici pants: Sixty-eight percent of the students attending the participating schools during the survey participated in the study (N = 3735). Ages ranged from 14 to 19 years; 52% were female; and 35% were African Amer ican, 33% white, and 23% Hispanic. Results: Multiple regression analys is determined that violence exposure and symptoms of psychological tra uma together explained more than 50% of the variance in both male and female self-reported violent behavior. The independent effects of expo sure to violence explained about one quarter of the variance in both m ale and female adolescents' violent behaviors. Anger was found to be t he leading trauma symptom. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that healt h clinicians and other professionals who encounter adolescents should routinely screen them for both exposure to violence and symptoms of an ger.