Date of Award

2016

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

Abstract

The current study explored the moderating roles of support coping and support

quality in the predictive relationship between community violence exposure (ECV) and a

variety of psychosocial outcomes. Participants were 119 African American males (9 th –

12 th grade; mean age at baseline = 15.33). Participants completed measures of exposure to

violence, support-seeking coping, quality of support from friends and family, and a range

of psychosocial outcomes, and completed these same measures approximately one year

after baseline. Regression analyses were conducted to examine the relationships between

ECV and psychosocial outcomes, as well as the relationships between support coping and

outcomes. Results showed that ECV predicted increased internalizing, externalizing, and

trauma symptoms after one year. No differences in the predictive power of witnessing

and victimization were reported. A moderated moderation analysis was conducted to

examine whether perceived support quality moderated the buffering effect of support-

seeking coping in the prediction of ECV and outcomes. Results did not support the

overall moderated moderation model across all outcomes, but an interaction between

ECV and support-seeking coping was detected at high levels of perceived friend support

in the prediction of social skills development. Implications for future research are

discussed.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

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