Exploring Adolescent Community Violence Exposure And Posttraumatic Stress Cross-Culturally In Israel

Vanessa Vorhies Klodnick*, Neil Guterman, Muhammad M. Haj-Yahia, Becky Leshem

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

19 Scopus citations

Abstract

Adolescent community violence exposure (CVE) has been linked to posttraumatic stress (PTS) and has been found to vary by race and ethnicity. Little is known about the relationship between adolescent CVE and PTS across ethnic groups in an international context. Arab and Jewish high school students (n = 1571) in Israel completed self-report questionnaires. Jewish adolescents (n = 821) witnessed more community violence, while Arab adolescents (n = 750) were more likely to victimized in the community and endorse higher levels of PTS. Ethnicity was found to be a significant predictor of PTS when controlling for CVE using hierarchical multiple regression (accounting for 2% of the variance in PTS). Ethnic affiliation did not moderate the relationship between CVE and PTS. These findings add to the small body of literature exploring cross-cultural differences in CVE and associated psychological distress. Further investigation of CVE and mental health cross-ethnically is warranted given the disparities in CVE and PTS rates.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)47-60
Number of pages14
JournalJournal of Community Psychology
Volume42
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 2014

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