Rt. Muller et al., Social support and the relationship between family and community violence exposure and psychopathology among high risk adolescents, CHILD ABUSE, 24(4), 2000, pp. 449-464
Objective: The objective of this study was to examine the protective effect
of social support in the relationship between exposure to violence and psy
chopathology. Exposure to violence in the family and exposure to violence i
n the community were examined separately. Exposure to violence was further
divided according to whether violence was experienced as a victim or as a w
itness. Internalizing and externalizing forms of psychopathology, as well a
s post-traumatic stress symptomatology were examined.
Method: Participants consisted of 65 high-risk adolescents admitted consecu
tively to psychiatric inpatient units. Data were collected by means of indi
vidual interviews, self-report questionnaires, and hospital charts.
Results: Social support emerged as a protective factor with respect to the
maladaptive effects of family violence, experienced as either a victim or a
s a witness. In contrast, social support did not appear to buffer the malad
aptive effects of community violence, regardless of whether violence was ex
perienced as a victim or as a witness. In fact, the relationship between co
mmunity violence and psychopathology was found to be generally nonsignifica
nt regardless of social support status.
Conclusions: These findings suggest that exposure to family violence may af
fect development differently than exposure to community violence, allowing
social support to effectively buffer the effects of family, but not communi
ty violence. This finding highlights the importance of examining violence e
xposure that occurs within the family separately from violence exposure tha
t occurs within the community. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd.