There is a growing body of research suggesting that the presence of psychopathic traits, and more specifically, callous-unemotional traits in youth, may constitute a distinct developmental pathway to aggressive behavior. However, ethnic groups are understudied in this literature such that it is unclear whether the correlates of psychopathic traits (i.e., violence, aggression, emotional processing deficits) are equally associated with these traits across different ethnic groups. Also, most theories on the development of psychopathy have provided biologically-based explanations for the cognitive-affective deficits that are considered to be core features of psychopathy. However, research suggests that exposure to adverse contextual environments is also associated with emotional processing deficits and could be important in the etiology of psychopathic traits. The current study examined callous-unemotional traits, emotional processing using the emotional pictures dot-probe task, and exposure to adverse contextual environments (i.e., community violence, abuse) in sixty African American and twenty Caucasian detained boys (n = 80). The results of the current study revealed that aggression, delinquency, and violence were associated with psychopathic traits and this did not differ across ethnic groups. Also, there was an interaction between psychopathic traits and aggression that supported past research and indicated that aggressive youth high on psychopathic traits showed a reduced responsiveness to distressing stimuli but aggressive youth low on psychopathic traits showed an enhanced responsivity to distressing stimuli. The association with contextual factors revealed that exposure to community violence was correlated with both psychopathic traits and emotional response to distress stimuli. There was also an interaction between psychopathic traits and exposure to community violence that was similar to the interaction found between psychopathic traits and aggression. That is, psychopathy was inversely related to emotional responses to distressing stimuli, but only for youth high on exposure to violence. Both of these interactions suggested that there was a group of youth high on callous-unemotional traits that also showed strong emotional responses to distressing stimuli. Analyses indicated that this group of youth experienced greater levels of abuse, consistent with research showing that abused children tend to be hypervigilant to emotional stimuli but may also show deficits in empathy. These findings suggest that there may be multiple developmental pathways to psychopathy and have important implications for how treatment approaches should be uniquely tailored to the needs of youth in each pathway.

Prosocial behavior during adolescence is consistently associated with a myriad of positive outcomes including fewer risk-taking behaviors and greater positive affect. Although limited, there is some literature that suggests prosocial behavior is an important protective factor in attenuating the effects of stressful life events such as exposure to community violence. Unfortunately work examining prosocial behaviors in African American adolescents is very sparse. The present study examined the moderating role of altruism, a specific form of prosocial behavior, on relationships between exposure to violence and negative mental health outcomes in a sample of 207 African American adolescents (136 females, 71 males). Participant’s age ranged from 13 to 18 (M = 15.78, SD = 1.19). Results indicated that boys and girls engaged in similar levels of altruistic behaviors, but these behaviors were especially important in moderating the impact of community violence on antisocial behaviors for boys. The findings suggest that encouraging altruistic behaviors in boys may be critical in improving outcomes for adolescent males developing in violent ecologies. / acase@tulane.edu

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Children and adolescents’ have a right to safety, which should be provided in their home and schools as well as in their broader community. A safe environment helps to promote their well-being, both emotionally and physically. In South Africa, many communities are characterised by high levels of community violence. Adolescents, especially, are at high risk of exposure to community violence as they tend to spend more time in the community than in previous life stages. Research indicates that community violence can be experience in three different ways, either by victimisation, which is a direct form of exposure to community violence and by witnessing or hearing about community violence, which are both indirect forms of community violence. Being exposed to community violence in any way can cause adolescents to experience, emotional, social, academic and physical difficulties. Gestalt theory, which formed the theoretical framework for the study, thus emphasises the holistic impact of community violence on adolescents. In addition, community violence negatively affects families and the entire community. This study focussed on adolescents’ experience of community violence. For this purpose, data were collected from young adults who experienced community violence during their adolescent years. The goal of the study was to explore and describe young adults’ perceptions of community violence experienced during adolescence. A qualitative study was conducted to gain information on the perceptions of a sample of young adults of community violence that they were exposed to during their adolescent years. The research findings are intended to inform social work practice, therefore, applied research was applicable. The instrumental case study research design guided the research, and data were collected by means of semi-structured interviews based on an interview schedule. Purposive sampling was used to select participants that had experienced community violence during their adolescent years, and snowball sampling were used to recruit 14 participants in Cloetesville, Stellenbosch. The research findings showed that the participants were directly and indirectly exposed to high levels of community violence. The participants described how this exposure affected them as adolescents, amongst others their emotions, freedom of movement in the community, trust in others, their social interaction and schoolwork, which still had an effect on them as young adults. However, high levels of community violence also affected the entire community. From the research findings, it is concluded that community violence can have detrimental effects on adolescents that could influence their current and future well-being and functioning. Recommendations for practice include creating awareness in communities about the harmful effects of community violence, and implementing preventive and supportive services for individuals, families and communities to minimise the risk of exposure to community violence and mitigate the effects thereof. It is recommended that future research focus on the effects of community violence on persons from different age groups, for example children in middle childhood and the elderly, as well as on interventions that will empower individuals, families and communities to deal with community violence. Key concepts: Community violence Types of community violence Effects of community violence Risk and protective factors in community violence Exposure to community violence / Mini Dissertation (MSW (Play-based Intervention))--University of Pretoria, 2021. / Social Work and Criminology / MSW (Play-based Intervention) / Unrestricted