An Examination of Community Violence Exposure and Sexual Harassment Among Latino/a Adolescents

Abstract

Community violence exposure (CVE) and neighborhood-based sexual harassment are two major public health concerns that threaten the psychological well-being of many adolescents globally (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2021; Kaltiala-Heino et al., 2016). Many researchers who examine CVE among adolescents often do not simultaneously examine sexual harassment, although sexual harassment is just as likely to co-occur in neighborhoods (Mora et al., 2022). Similarly, most research focuses on urban Black adolescent samples, with less research focused on Latino/a youth (Santacrose et al., 2021). The current dissertation examined CVE and neighborhood-based sexual harassment among Latino/a adolescents in the U.S. and Mexico. Study 1 qualitatively explored adolescents’ understanding of neighborhood-based sexual harassment among a sample of 48 Latino/a urban adolescents (Mage =16) from Chicago and Detroit. Findings from the thematic analysis and case study highlighted the ways in which adolescents describe their understanding of sexual harassment—ranging from subtle and frequent forms (i.e., being catcalled) to more severe forms of abuse (i.e., rape). Findings further revealed gender differences in the ways adolescents experience and describe sexual harassment, with boys describing harassment as a possible threat directed towards girls, and girls describing harassment as a real, tangible risk they content with and are constantly on the look out for. Study 2 investigated the links between CVE, neighborhood-based sexual harassment, and Latino adolescents’ PTSD and depressive symptoms and tested whether mother- and father-child cohesion moderated these relations over time among a sample of 416 U.S. Latino adolescents (Mage =15.5). Preliminary results revealed high rates of CVE and sexual harassment concurrently and over time and results from structural equation models revealed statistically significant and positive links between CVE, sexual harassment, and adolescents’ psychological outcomes one year later. While a statistically significant moderating effect of parent-child cohesion was not found, the pattern of the effect did indicate a protective effect. Study 3 investigated the links between CVE, neighborhood-based sexual harassment, and adolescents’ depressive and PTSD symptoms among 200 rural, poor, Mexican adolescents (Mage =14.9). Preliminary findings revealed high rates of CVE and sexual harassment and findings from hierarchical regressions revealed that exposure to community violence and sexual harassment were linked to greater depressive and PTSD symptoms. Additionally, parent-adolescent communication functioned as a protective-reactive factor in the presence of personal victimization and as a protective-stabilizing factor in the presence of sexual harassment. Together, the three studies: a) highlight the high rates of both CVE and neighborhood-based sexual harassment that Latino/a and Mexican adolescents contend with in the U.S. and Mexico; b) provide evidence of the link between CVE and sexual harassment to negative psychological outcomes, with particularly strong and long-lasting links between sexual harassment and psychological outcomes; and c) suggest that dimensions within parent-adolescent relationships can potentially protect adolescents from negative effects in the face of violence. Moreover, findings from this dissertation elucidate the urgency of addressing sexual harassment as a form of violence that adolescents contend with in neighborhoods and illustrate that fostering a healthy parent-adolescent relationship—between adolescents and their mothers and fathers—is important for violence-exposed youth. Social workers, practitioners, and psychologists who work with violence-exposed Latino/a youth may draw from these findings to design and implement interventions that create safe neighborhood settings and promote healthy parent-adolescent relationships to protect adolescents from developing negative psychological outcomes from CVE and neighborhood-based sexual harassment.