The correlation between exposure to neighborhood violence and perpetration of moderate physical violence among Arab-Palestinian youth: Can it be moderated by parent –child support and gender?

In the current study, we examined the role of parent –child support as a protective factor that moderates the correlation between exposure to neighborhood violence and perpetration of moderate physical violence among 3,187 Arab-Palestinian adolescents who live in Israel (aged 12 to 18), from 21 different schools who were selected randomly. The proba bility sampling method was a nonproportional multistage stratified cluster sample. We also examined gender differences across this protective process. Participants completed a structured, anonymous self-report questionnaire. The findings of the study reveal that 47.3% of the adolescents had perpetra ted moderate physical violence against others at least once during the month preceding the study. Moreover, exposure of adolescents to violence in their neighborhood correlated significantly and positively with perpetration of moderate physical violence. A moderation analysis was tested and found th at this correlation was stronger among adolescents who had poor parent–child support than among those who had strong parent–child support. Furthermore, the findings reveal that the correlation of exposure to neighborhood violence with perpetration of moderate physical violence was not moderated by gender. However, parent–child support correlated strongly with lower levels of perpetration of moderate physical violence among males than females. The findings of the study highlight the critical role of parental factors in decreasing vio...
Source: American Journal of Orthopsychiatry - Category: Psychiatry Authors: Source Type: research