title: Exposure to violence among urban school-aged children: is it only on television?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To measure exposure to different types of violence among school-aged children in a primary care setting.
  
  
  METHODS
  Child interviews using an instrument measuring 4 types of exposure (direct victimization, witnessing, hearing reports, media). Violent acts measured include being beaten up, chased/threatened, robbed/mugged, stabbed/shot, killed.
  
  
  METHODS
  Pediatric primary care clinic of large urban hospital.
  
  
  METHODS
  Convenience sample of 175 children 9-12 years old and their mothers. A total of 53% of the children were boys, 55% were Hispanic, and 40% received public assistance.
  
  
  RESULTS
  All children had been exposed to media violence. A total of 97% (170/175) had been exposed to more direct forms of violence; 77% had witnessed violence involving strangers; 49% had witnessed violence involving familiar persons; 49% had been direct victims; and 31% had witnessed someone being shot, stabbed, or killed. Exposure to violence was significantly associated with being male.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Most school-aged children who visited a pediatric primary care clinic of a large urban hospital had directly experienced violence as witnesses and/or victims.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, NY, USA. opurugganan@pol.net
authors.forename: O H
authors.initials: OH
authors.lastname: Purugganan
authors.forename: R E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Stein
authors.forename: E J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Silver
authors.forename: B S
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Benenson
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008402:Mass Media; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009518:New York; D010372:Pediatrics; D012044:Regression Analysis; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014505:Urban Population; D014754:Violence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*