Exposure to community violence and Children's mental Health: A quasi-experimental examination

RATIONALE

Community violence and mental health problems are global health concerns. Yet, assessing the causal links between community violent crime and mental health is challenging due to problems of selection bias.

OBJECTIVE

This study examines the link between community violent crime and children's mental health problems, as well as the moderating role of parents' mental health.

METHOD

The study employs a representative sample of 404 children (M_age=8.99, range=7-11) from Bogotá, Colombia, as well as longitudinal geocoded data on violent crimes from the national police. To account for problems of selection bias, the empirical strategy exploits naturalistic exogenous variation in the timing and location of an incident of violent crime relative to assessment of children's mental health problems, combined with matching techniques.

RESULTS

Findings suggest an incident of violent crime in close proximity to children's homes is associated, on average, with increases in children's mental health problems by 0.28-0.38 SD; having parents with worse mental health exacerbates children's problems. Results from sensitivity checks and falsification tests further support the internal validity of the findings.

CONCLUSIONS

Collectively, the results from the present study and those of previous research suggest that community violent crime has the potential to affect local residents negatively beyond direct victims, placing a heavy burden on individuals and society.

Contagion models for the transmission of drug abuse among propinquity-of-rearing defined acquaintances: A Swedish national study

BACKGROUND

Can we validate a contagion model for drug abuse (DA) in Propinquity-of-Rearing Defined Acquaintances (PRDAs)?

METHODS

PRDAs were defined as pairs of same-age males born 1975-1990 who grew up within 2 km of each other, one of whom (PRDA1) being first registered for DA in national registries. Using adult residential location, we predicted, using regression splines, proximity-dependent risk for DA first registration in a second PRDA (PRDA2) within 3 years of PRDA1's registration.

RESULTS

In 181,743 PRDA pairs, the best-fit model, controlling for age and PRDA2 community risk, included 2 slopes of proximity-risk relationships in childhood and three in adulthood. Risk for DA in PRDA2 was strongly predicted by childhood proximity to PRDA1: 0 to 0.5 km - Hazard ratio (HR) per kilometer 0.52 and 0.6-2 km 0.78. HRs for PRDA2 as a function of adult proximity to PRDA1 were: 0-1 km 0.887, 1-75 km 0.996 and >75 km 0.9997. Proximity-dependent PRDA2 risk was moderated by age, familial risk and educational attainment, attenuated by increasing PRDA1-PRDA2 age differences and stronger for older to younger versus younger to older pairs.

CONCLUSIONS

Transmission of DA risk between acquaintances growing up together was attenuated by increasing distance in adulthood. Strength of the acquaintance, indexed by childhood propinquity and age difference, modified transmission strength. The impact of adult proximity on transmission was reduced in acquaintances with higher resistance to DA due to older age, higher educational attainment or lower familial risk. Our results support the validity of DA contagion models.