Assessing the status of research on violence-related problems among youth

Presents results of a systematic review of abstracts on studies related to violence and youth in an effort to identify areas that have received little attention in the psychological literature and to present recommendations f or future research. A total of 1,168 empirical articles on violence-related problems in youth were identified by a PsycINFO (American Psychological As sociation, 1980-1999) search. These articles were then classified in a mult idimensional grid, allowing for comparisons among different types of articl es. A review of abstracts from these articles indicated that most of the re search activity has been descriptive (e.g., reviewing correlates or predict ors of violence involvement) or assessment related(e.g., evaluating specifi c measures). Fewer articles examined the treatment or prevention of violenc e-related problems among youth. Further, the majority of studies pertained to direct exposure to violence las a victim or perpetrator), with very few studies looking at the effects of witnessing violence, knowing individuals exposed to violence, or being exposed to violence through the media. Com pa ring treatment and prevention articles, we found that the least empirical a ttention was paid to the prevention of violence-related problems in youth, and nor a single study was identified through this search that sought to ex amine the prevention of youth witnessing violence. Implications for future research agendas are discussed.