Adolescents exposure to community violence: Sleep and psychophysiological functioning

The relationships among psychophysiological indices, sleep disturbance, and adolescents' exposure to community violence were examined in a pilot study of 64 community youth (ages 16-18; 84% African American), 25 of whom had t heir blood pressure and pulse rates assessed. Neither age nor gender differ ences were found in self-reported sleep disturbance or community violence e xposure. Self-reported exposure to community violence and sleep deprivation were positively related. Multivariate analyses of covariance (MANCOVAs) re vealed that youth at the highest of three levels of violence exposure had t he lowest resting pulse rates. These results suggest that youth in communit ies marked by pervasive violence may be physiologically adapting and emotio nally desensitizing to that violence. Implications of intervention are disc ussed. (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.