Inner-city children's exposure to community violence: How much do parents know?

This study, examines the psychological impact of children's exposure to vio lence and the influence of mothers' knowledge about their children's encoun ters with violence. Our sample consists of a poor, multiethnic sample of 10 4 fourth- or fifth-grade children and their mothers. Children in this sampl e were exposed to rather high levels of community violence, and on the whol e, mothers greatly underestimated their children's exposure to violence and feelings of psychological distress. Hierarchical regression analyses indic ated that children's exposure to violence was associated with greater psych ological distress. Our findings suggest that the detrimental effects of com munity violence are present for all children, irrespective of their racial background. Further, greater mother-child agreement about children's exposu re to violence was related to better psychological functioning. The implica tions of these results for effective parenting strategies and community-bas ed interventions are discussed.