Correlates and Consequences of Juvenile Exposure to Violence in the United States, 1995 (ICPSR 3986)

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Study Purpose View help for Study Purpose

This study examined the effect of exposure to violence on juveniles. It was specifically concerned with juveniles' perceptions of violence in schools and communities and how exposure to violence served as a risk factor for juvenile drug and alcohol use and participation in other delinquent activities. The study sought to determine whether exposure to violence increased abuse, dependence, and regular use of drugs and alcohol, while controlling for demographic characteristics, family substance use, and peer deviance. Another objective of the study was to develop a more complete picture of the context and consequences of violence in schools. In particular, the study examined the effects of the type of violence witnessed, how recently the violence was witnessed, the relationship of the offender and victim to the witness, and whether the witness felt at risk during the incident.

Study Design View help for Study Design

The data for this study are from the NATIONAL SURVEY OF ADOLESCENTS IN THE UNITED STATES, 1995 (ICPSR 2833). The current study drew primarily on the questions that were asked about respondents' experiences witnessing violence, their own victimization, peer and family deviance, their own delinquent activities, and drug and alcohol use. The NATIONAL SURVEY OF ADOLESCENTS IN THE UNITED STATES, 1995 (ICPSR 2833) consisted of a national probability telephone sample of 4,023 juveniles between the ages of 12-17 who (1) were living in United States households with telephones, (2) resided with a parent or guardian, and (3) could converse in English or Spanish. All sample selection and interviewing was done by Schulman, Ronca, and Bucuvalas, Inc. (SRBI), a New York-based survey research team. All interviews with both parents and adolescents were conducted using Computer- Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) technology. After determining that the household contained one or more eligible adolescents, interviewers asked to speak to a parent or guardian. One parent or guardian in each household was interviewed briefly to establish rapport, secure permission to interview the targeted adolescent, and to ensure the collection of comparative data to examine potential nonresponse bias from households without adolescent participation. Parents and guardians were provided the opportunity to call a toll-free number to confirm the authenticity of the study. Whenever possible, adolescents were interviewed immediately following the parent or guardian interviews. Otherwise, appointments were scheduled when possible or blind callbacks at different times of the day or days of the week were made. As an incentive for participation, adolescent participants received a certificate of participation in the "National Survey of Adolescents" and a check for five dollars as compensation for their time. From the surveys of parents and adolescents, the principal investigators created one data file by attaching the data from the parents to the records of their respective adolescents.

Sample View help for Sample

The NATIONAL SURVEY OF ADOLESCENTS IN THE UNITED STATES, 1995 (ICPSR 2833) consisted of two subsamples, a national probability household sample of 3,161 adolescents and a probability oversample of 862 adolescents residing in central city areas of the United States, for a total sample of 4,023. Because the parent or guardian interviews were conducted prior to the adolescent interviews, the 4,023 participants in the parent sample were also selected from a national probability sample of households and a probability oversample of central city households. To construct the initial national probability sample, a multistage, stratified, area probability, random-digit- dialing sampling procedure that had four steps was used. First, the United States was stratified geographically by Census region and a population-based subsample allocation was developed for each geographic stratum. In other words, the number of households drawn for the sample from each geographic stratum was allocated in proportion to the actual distribution of the population residing within each stratum, according to the most recent Census estimates. In the second step, telephone banks within each geographic stratum were systematically selected utilizing the comprehensive database of working telephone banks maintained by Schulman, Ronca, and Bucuvalas, Inc. (SRBI). Third, random-digit-dialing was used to sample telephone households within the telephone banks selected in the second stage. Nonworking household (e.g., business) numbers were immediately replaced by other numbers selected in the same fashion as the initial numbers. Non-answering numbers were called again four times before being replaced. In the fourth step, an adult respondent in each household was screened to determine if there were any adolescents aged 12-17 currently living in the household or if any had lived in the household at least four months during the previous year. In households with multiple eligible adolescents, a systematic selection (i.e., "most recent birthday" technique) was made to determine which eligible individual would be designated as the respondent. Construction of the central city oversample followed the same procedures except for the initial geographic stratification step. This step was replaced using the census classification of counties by types of place and specifying the target population as households located within these urban counties. Adolescents who were potentially excluded from the study included those residing in institutional settings, in households without a parent or guardian (e.g., emancipated minors, married adolescents living on their own) or in a house without telephones, those who did not speak English or Spanish, and those whose parents did not give permission for them to be interviewed.

Universe View help for Universe

Adolescents aged 12-17 in the United States.

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Description of Variables View help for Description of Variables

Variables include adolescent respondents' answers to questions about whether violence and drug abuse were problems in their schools and communities, what types of violence they had personally witnessed, where, how recently, and who the victims and perpetrators were, their alcohol and drug use history, including types of drugs used, age of first use, frequency of use, and problems related to use, whether they had been victims of physical or sexual assault, family background, including whether respondent was subject to harsh physical punishment and whether anyone in the family had a problem with drinking or drug use, the delinquent behavior of respondents and their friends, including destruction of property, assault, theft, sexual assault, and gang activity, and demographic information, including age, race, gender, grade in school, and number of people in household. Parents provided the family's income level. Other variables include whether the respondent suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, a weighting variable based on 1995 census data, and several derived variables that were not included in the original dataset, including dichotomous variables related to extent of drug use, dichotomous variables indicating whether different kinds of violence were witnessed, and total times different kinds of violence were witnessed.

Response Rates View help for Response Rates

Parents in 90.1 percent of eligible households completed interviews and parents in 78.9 percent of eligible households gave permission for their adolescents to be interviewed. Adolescent interviews were completed in 75 percent of eligible households, 83.2 percent of households with completed parent interviews, and 95 percent of households with parental permission.

Presence of Common Scales View help for Presence of Common Scales

None.

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Original Release Date View help for Original Release Date

2004-09-02

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