The Moderating Effect of Parental Support on the Internalizing Symptoms of Emerging Adults Exposed to Community Violence

Background: Community violence refers to the exposure to public acts of violence via threatened, witnessed, or completed victimization not committed by an intimate partner or family member. This exposure is associated with a number of adverse mental health outcomes, including depression and anxiety. Evidence suggests parental support mitigates the association between community violence exposure and internalizing symptoms in adolescents.  However, this moderation remains unexplored for emerging adults who are just as likely to be exposed to high levels of community violence. This study investigates this moderation of parental support for emerging adults, and compares it with that for adolescents.

Methods: Data was drawn from the Pathways to Desistence Study focusing on serious adolescent offenders as they transitioned to emerging adulthood (N=1,354). Study participants were between the ages of 14 and 17 upon baseline measure (M=16.5) and were followed for seven years.  Interviews were conducted every six months for the first three years and annually thereafter.  As a result, some participants were interviewed twice at ages 16 and/or 19. 

A sample was created utilizing the first 8 waves of the study to include all responses during adolescence (age 16, n=1,380) and emerging adulthood (age 19, n=1,883). Internalizing symptoms was measured using the Brief Symptom Inventory which assesses nine specific symptoms and includes a measure for overall distress (ranged from .02 to 3.25 for adolescent sample and .02 to 3.34 for emerging adult sample).  Community violence was measured utilizing the Exposure to Violence Inventory which assesses exposure to observed and experienced violence (ranged from 1 to 13 for adolescent sample and 0 to11 for emerging adult sample). Parental support was measured using the Quality of Parental Relationships Inventory (ranged from 1 to 4 for the adolescent and emerging adult samples). Community violence, parental support, and their interaction are used to predict internalizing symptoms in a series of OLS regression models for adolescents and emerging adults. Regression coefficients are compared across the models. All analyses controlled for race and location at the time of interview.

Results: Exposure to community violence during adolescence and emerging adulthood had a significant effect on internalizing symptoms.  Exposure to an additional act of community violence during adolescence corresponds to an increase in internalizing symptoms of 10.7% (p<.001).  Exposure to an additional act of community violence during emerging adulthood corresponds to an increase in internalizing symptoms of 13.6% (p<.001).  Mother support during adolescence moderated the relationship between exposure to community violence and internalizing symptoms; weakening the relationship by 3.2% (p<.05).  Contrary to prediction, the transition to emerging adulthood was marked by an increase in parental support.  However, this support did not moderate the relationship between exposure to community violence and internalizing symptoms. 

Conclusion: Due to the increase of parental support during emerging adulthood, findings suggest that interventions, programs, and policies that boost the parental support of emerging adults may be a useful strategy to mitigate the negative impacts of community violence.  Mental health and public health professionals may benefit from family-based approaches which leverage parental support as a resource.