title: No safe haven: a study of violence exposure in an urban community.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine levels of violence exposure and reports of feeling unsafe in relation to psychological and behavioral characteristics for a general population sample of youths from an urban setting.
  
  
  METHODS
  A comprehensive survey of high-risk behaviors, attitudes, indicators of adaptive behavior, and daily involvements was administered to a sample of 2,248 students in the 6th, 8th, and 10th grades in an urban public school system.
  
  
  RESULTS
  More than 40% of the youths surveyed reported exposure to a shooting or stabbing in the past year, and 74% reported feeling unsafe in one or more common environmental contexts. Multiple regression analyses indicated significant relationships between violence exposure/feeling unsafe and a set of indicators of psychological and behavioral adaptation and expressed attitudes.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results attest to the picture of violence as a common fact of inner-city life and to the demand that is placed on urban youths to accommodate in their psychological development to chronic threat and lack of safety.
authors.affiliation: Harris Program on Child Psychiatry, Child Development, and Social Policy, Yale Child Study Center, New Haven, CT 06520-7900, USA.
authors.forename: M E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Schwab-Stone
authors.forename: T S
authors.initials: TS
authors.lastname: Ayers
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Kasprow
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Voyce
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Barone
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shriver
authors.forename: R P
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Weissberg
mesh_terms: D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000523:psychology; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000523:psychology; D004777:Environment; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008913:Minority Groups; D012309:Risk-Taking; D014481:United States; D014505:Urban Population; D014754:Violence