The Effects of Community and Family Violence Exposure on Anxiety Trajectories during Middle Childhood: The Role of Family Social Support as a Moderator

Background and Purpose: Youths are exposed to violence in their communities, schools, and families at a startling rate. Children are not only directly victimized, but also witness others' victimization. Within families experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV), the likelihood of co-occurring violence exposure among the children is great: Results from the Navy Family Study, a study of families referred for family violence, indicated that 79% of children who witnessed IPV reported exposure to community violence. Community violence exposure and witnessing IPV have been associated with anxiety among youths. However, protective factors such as social support have been shown to buffer the effects of violence exposure on children's mental health outcomes. Using a risk and resilience approach, we examined the following questions within a longitudinal sample of children: What are the effects of exposure to community violence and witnessing IPV, initially and over time, on children's initial anxiety and their trajectories of anxiety over time? Does family social support moderate the relationship between community violence exposure and anxiety, and witnessing IPV and anxiety, initially and over time? If yes, what is the nature of the moderation effect(s)?

Methods: The participants were part of a longitudinal study that examined the lives of women who had experienced IPV, as well as the lives of their children. One-hundred and sixty families were recruited from three community-based sites that served IPV survivors; both the mothers and children were interviewed six times over two years. One hundred children were age 8 or older and able to complete the full battery of scales; this group of older children comprises the current sample (M = 9.90, SD = 1.48). Children were interviewed about their experiences with community violence (modified Things I Have Seen and Heard), witnessing IPV (Child Report of Witnessing IPV), perceived social support (modified Social Support Microsystem Scale), and anxiety (Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale). We used longitudinal multilevel analysis to estimate the effects of community violence exposure and witnessing IPV, family social support, and the interaction of violence exposure and family social support, on the children's anxiety across the six time points, defining individual children as the Level 2 unit of analysis, and repeated measurements nested within each individual as the Level 1 unit of analysis.

Results: We found heterogeneity across children in terms of their initial levels of anxiety and their trajectories of anxiety over time. Initial community violence exposure and witnessing IPV were both positively associated with initial levels of anxiety. Over time, change in both types of violence exposure each positively co-varied with anxiety, and change in family social support was a significant moderator of the effect of community violence exposure on anxiety.

Conclusion: The findings indicate that community violence exposure and witnessing IPV do have an effect on children's anxiety levels initially and over time, though family social support—even within families that have experienced IPV—can help to buffer the effect of community violence exposure. Interventions should focus on assessing for co-occurring violence within families, and building on this indigenous support.