3 - Community Violence as a Determinant of Social Isolation Among Chicago Adolescents

Publication Number: 4002.3

Kevin Y. Hu, University of Chicago Division of the Biological Sciences The Pritzker School of Medicine, Chicago, IL, United States; Elizabeth Tung, University of Chicago Division of the Biological Sciences The Pritzker School of Medicine, Chicago, IL, United States

Background: Prior research has demonstrated that social isolation is associated with an increased risk of mortality-rivaling well-established risk factors such as obesity and smoking. For marginalized communities, rates of social isolation may be higher due to increased rates of community violence. Prior studies have quantitatively demonstrated these linkages among adults, but none have among adolescents.

Objective: To examine relationships between exposure to community violence and social isolation in a representative sample of adolescents enrolled in Chicago Public Schools.

Design/Methods: The Chicago Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) collects district-level data from a sample of middle school and high school students in Chicago Public Schools (CPS) to monitor behaviors which influence health (n=2854). Social isolation was captured using 2 measures of social closeness: (1) closeness to an adult in their life and (2) closeness to others at school. Community violence exposure was captured using 2 measures of self-reported exposure: (1) to neighborhood violence and (2) to police engagement. Weighted fixed effects logistic regression models analyzed social closeness measures as a function of community violence exposure measures-controlling for race, grade, sex, sexual orientation, and gender.

Results: Compared to students without community violence exposure, Chicago adolescents had lower odds of reporting closeness to an adult if they reported a prior experience of neighborhood violence (OR=0.69, p-value < 0.001) or police engagement (OR=0.66, p-value < 0.001). In contrast, there was no significant relationship between closeness to others at school and either measure of community violence. However, subgroup analyses demonstrated that middle-school adolescents had lower odds of reporting closeness to others at school if they reported a prior experience of neighborhood violence (OR=0.75, p-value=0.02) or police engagement (OR=0.8, p-value= 0.04); these associations were not significant among high-school adolescents.

Conclusion(s): In a representative sample of Chicago adolescents in CPS, we found a consistent relationship between exposure to community violence and social isolation, especially for lower reported closeness to adults. Disaggregating adolescents into middle school and high school subgroups showed differences that suggest higher vulnerability to the impacts of violence among middle school youth relative to high school youth. Taken together, these findings may have implications for strategically targeting interventions to address the impact of community violence and to reduce inequities in U.S. urban communities.

Table 1. Demographics
Table of race/ethnicity, grade, sex, sexual orientation, gender, exposure to community violence, and social network characteristic demographics of sample (n=2854).

Chart 1. Odds Ratios of Adult Closeness and Community Violence
Fixed effects logistic regression models were used to estimate differences between groups of adolescents who were and were not exposed to community violence adjusted for race/ethnicity, grade, sex, sexual orientation, and gender. Adolescents who were exposed to either measure of community violence (neighborhood violence, police interaction) had a lower odds of having an adult with whom they felt close.

Figure 2. School Closeness and Community Violence
Fixed effects logistic regression models were used to estimate differences between groups of adolescents who were and were not exposed to community violence adjusted for race/ethnicity, sex, sexual orientation, and gender. Subgroup analyses were conducted specifically on adolescents in high school and adolescents in middle school. Middle school adolescents who were exposed to either measure of community violence (neighborhood violence, police interaction) had a lower odds of feeling close to other at school.