A Preliminary Examination of the Relationship Between Exposure to Community Violence and Academic Functioning

This article provides a preliminary examination of the relationship between exposure to community violence and academic functioning in a group of 45 African American children (mean age = 12.8 years) living in an impoverished urban environment. In addition, the role of family achievement expectations and religion, two previously identified family compensatory factors related to academic resilience, were evaluated as moderators of the relationship between community violence and academic functioning. Results suggested that exposure to community violence had only a weak relationship with academic functioning in general, but that relationship was intensified under certain circumstances. Significant interactions between exposure to community violence, and both family achievement orientation and religious emphasis suggest that exposure to community violence may alter the role of previously identified compensatory factors. Children who perceived very high achievement expectations and a very strong moral-religious emphasis were most at risk for poor academic functioning as exposure to community violence increased, although children from these types of families displayed the highest academic functioning at lower levels of community violence exposure.