The Role of Social Cohesion in Youth Exposure to Neighborhood Violence and Psychological Distress

Background and Purpose: Young people are experiencing high levels of mental health challenges, with over two-thirds reporting exposure to one traumatic event by age 16, causing traumatic stress. Studies have reported associations between neighborhood crime and mental health, with significant associations for depression, psychological distress, anxiety, and psychosis. Further research on protective factors is needed to expand social workers’ understanding of what minimizes negative mental health outcomes when youth are exposed to neighborhood violence. One protective factor is collective efficacy, defined as social cohesion among neighbors combined with their willingness to intervene on behalf of the common good. This study aims to explore how social cohesion acts as a mediator in the relationship between neighborhood violence exposure and psychological distress among adolescents.

Methods: We used data from adolescents (N=968) ages 12 to 17, participating in the 2023 California Health Interview Survey (CHIS), a statewide biennial population-based health survey of Californians. Psychological distress was measured using the 6-item Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K6), with scores ranging from 0 to 13, with higher scores indicating greater psychological distress. Social cohesion was assessed using a subset of 3 items from Sampson et al.'s Collective Efficacy Scale, where responses were totaled to create a scale ranging from 0 to 12. Neighborhood violence was measured using a dichotomous item indicating whether the adolescent had ever been the victim of violence or witnessed neighborhood. We utilized structural equation modeling (SEM) path analysis to explore the mediation role of social cohesion between neighborhood violence exposure and psychological distress, controlling for age, gender, race, and poverty level. We estimated the SEM model using jackknife replicate weights to account for survey design effects.

Results: We found that social cohesion was associated with lower levels of psychological distress for youth exposed to violence (b = –0.22, p <.05). Conversely being exposed to neighborhood violence had a direct negative effect on psychological distress (b = 1.74, p < .01), even when accounting for social cohesion and controlling for the effects of the included covariates. Adolescents who reported having been the victim of violence or witnessed any violence in their neighborhood reported lower levels of social cohesion (b = –0.93, p <.01), indicating a modest protective effect in which higher levels of social cohesion may against psychological distress for youth exposed to or experiencing violence. However, the overall mediating effect of social cohesion was not enough to offset the effects of neighborhood violence on psychological distress.

Conclusions and Implications: This study supports the importance of social workers in providing multi-level approaches to address structural neighborhood violence exposure for youth to reduce the negative mental health outcomes for youth exposed to violence, to provide trauma focused mental health services, and to foster social cohesion in neighborhoods to help buffer, even marginally, the psychological distress experienced by youth who survive violence or witness violence. It is essential for social workers and youth workers to promote and create environments where young people feel safe, supported, and connected.