American Journal of Orthopsychiatry © 2016 Global Alliance for Behavioral Health and Social Justice

2017, Vol. 87, No. 4, 463– 473 http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/ort0000241

Examining the Effects of Emotional and Cognitive

Desensitization to Community Violence Exposure in
Male Adolescents of Color
Noni K. Gaylord-Harden, Suzanna So, Patrick H. Tolan
and Grace J. Bai University of Virginia
Loyola University Chicago
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This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.

The current study examined pathways in a model of desensitization, the Pathologic Adaptation
Model, in adolescent males of color. Specifically, the current study examined depressive
symptoms and deviant beliefs as mediators of the association between community violence
exposure and subsequent violent behavior. The current study included 250 African-American
(67%) and Latino (33%) male adolescents (T1 mean age ⫽ 15.32) from the Chicago Youth
Development Study. Consistent with the Pathologic Adaptation Model, results demonstrated that
depressive symptoms mediated the association between the quadratic violence exposure term in
middle adolescence and violent behaviors in late adolescence, but the direction of the mediation
effect was dependent upon the levels of violence exposure in middle adolescence. However,
deviant beliefs were not found to be a significant mediator. Emotional desensitization effects
may increase the likelihood of violence perpetration in adolescent males exposed to community
violence, and the implications for future research and intervention efforts are discussed.

Public Policy Relevance Statement

Although there have been some successful efforts to curtail violence and crime in low-
income, urban communities, ethnic minority male adolescents who reside in these commu-
nities remain vulnerable to very high levels of exposure to community violence and violence-
related outcomes. The current study elucidates the role of community violence exposure in
the development of emotional and behavioral problems in low-income, ethnic minority male
adolescents and demonstrates that desensitization to violence may lead to increases in violent
behavior over time.

E
xposure to community violence (ECV) has been linked
with a number of maladaptive psychosocial outcomes for
male adolescents of color in urban communities (Salzinger,
Feldman, Stockhammer, & Hood, 2002), and a burgeoning body of
research examines desensitization as an outcome of community
violence exposure. Desensitization to ECV posits that youth who
experience repeated exposure to violence “adapt” by suppressing
emotional distress and viewing violence as normal (Cooley-Quille
& Lorion, 1999; McCart et al., 2007). However, when youth
become emotionally numb and normalize violence, they may lose
inhibitions about using aggressive behavior, which may lead to
violence perpetration and additional violence exposure (Garbarino,
Kostelny, & Dubrow, 1991; Ng-Mak, Salzinger, Feldman, & Stu-
eve, 2002, 2004). Given the dangerous consequences of engaging
in aggressive behavior in some urban communities, understanding
mechanisms of the link between ECV and violence perpetration is
warranted for adolescent males of color.

This article was published Online First December 15, 2016.
Noni K. Gaylord-Harden, Suzanna So, and Grace J. Bai, Department of
Psychology, Loyola University Chicago; Patrick H. Tolan, Curry School of
Education, University of Virginia.
This study was supported by a grant from the National Institute for
Child Health and Human Development.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Noni K.
Gaylord-Harden, Department of Psychology, Loyola University Chicago,
1032 West Sheridan Road, Chicago, IL 60660. E-mail: ngaylor@luc.edu
Exposure to Community Violence and
Desensitization Effects
Desensitization is consistent with the concept of habituation—
when an organism’s response to a stimulus decreases over time
due to repeated or prolonged exposure to the stimulus (Groves &
Thompson, 1970). Exposure to a stressor will produce an initial
increase in the organism’s response, followed by decrements in the
organism’s response when repeatedly exposed to the same stimu-

463
 464 GAYLORD-HARDEN, SO, BAI, AND TOLAN
lus (Groves & Thompson, 1970). One model of desensitization to
ECV is the Pathologic Adaptation Model (PAM; Ng-Mak et al.,
2002), which states that youth begin to respond to high levels of
violence with emotional numbing, evidenced by lower than ex-
pected levels of emotional symptoms, but higher levels of violent
behavior (Ng-Mak et al., 2002). The PAM focuses on emotional
desensitization, which occurs when an individual experiences a
numbing or blunting of emotional reactions to ECV, rather than the
expected strong emotional response (Funk, Baldacci, Pasold, &
Baumgardner, 2004). Depressive symptoms are often used as a
proxy for emotional symptoms, and the PAM suggests a curvilin-
ear (inverted U-shaped) relationship between ECV and depression.
For youth exposed to community violence, affective symptoms of
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sadness, emptiness, or worthlessness may be blunted as a way to
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cope with the traumatic nature of violence exposure (Porter, 1996).
Empirical studies show support for emotional desensitization to
ECV, with a curvilinear association of ECV to depression and
anxiety symptoms (Gaylord-Harden, Cunningham, & Zelencik,
2011; Mrug, Loosier, & Windle 2008).
This emotional desensitization process appears adaptive in the
short-term for decreasing depressive symptoms, but may place
youth at elevated risk for callousness, violence perpetration, and
additional violence exposure if it becomes habitual (Kerig, Ben-
nett, Thompson, & Becker, 2012; Ng-Mak et al., 2002, 2004). In
other words, the curvilinear association between ECV and depres-
sive symptoms may predict higher levels of aggressive behavior
over time. Specifically, youth who experience a numbing of emo-
tional reactions to violence exposure may be more likely to view
violent and aggressive behavior as normative, lose inhibitions
about using violent behavior, and use more dangerous self-
protective behaviors (e.g., carrying a weapon; Gorman-Smith &
Tolan, 1998; Guerra, Huesmann, & Spindler, 2003; Jenkins &
Bell, 1994; Reese, Vera, Thompson, & Reyes, 2001; Spano, Ri-
vera, & Bolland, 2010). Indeed, cross-sectional research demon-
strates positive associations between exposure to violence across
multiple contexts (home, neighborhood, and school), numbing of
sadness, and aggressive behavior (Allwood, Bell, & Horan, 2011).
Given these proposed associations, there is a need to extend
existing research on desensitization by examining depressive
symptoms as a mediator of the association between ECV and
violent behavior. As noted above, the PAM posits that ECV results
in lower levels of depressive symptoms, which in turn, lead to
more violent behavior; however, the cross-sectional nature of
research in this area precludes direct tests of this assertion. An
exception within existing research is a recent longitudinal inves-
tigation of desensitization, which demonstrated that high levels of
violence exposure across multiple contexts (home, school, and
neighborhood) in preadolescence showed a curvilinear association
to depression and anxiety symptoms at age 13 (Mrug, Madan, &
Windle, 2016). In turn, these lower levels of internalizing prob-
lems predicted more violent behaviors at age 18. Though the
findings were not specific to community violence, they lend crit-
ical evidence for the role of blunted affective or emotional re-
sponses to violence exposure, as strong support for desensitization
is indicated only if these blunted emotional responses are directly
linked to increases in aggressive behavior (Bartholow, Bushman,
& Sestir, 2006).
A limitation of the PAM and the literature on desensitization to
ECV is that this body of work does not distinguish between
various forms of desensitization (Gaylord-Harden, Bai, & Simic,
2016; Mrug et al., 2016). However, youth with repeated ECV also
experience increases in normative beliefs about aggression (Boxer
et al., 2008), which suggests cognitive desensitization. Cognitive
desensitization refers to a change in one’s belief that violence is
uncommon to the belief that violence is mundane and inevitable, as
a result of prolonged exposure to violence (Funk et al., 2004). It is
consistent with the concept of “normalization of violence,” which
is described as a possible mediator of the relationship between
community violence exposure and affective and behavioral out-
comes (Ng-Mak et al., 2002). ECV activates cognitive schemas
and scripts regarding violence, and the more ECV that an adoles-
cent experiences, the more scripts they develop regarding the
acceptability of violence (McMahon, Felix, Halpert, & Petropou-
los, 2009).
With one exception, cognitive desensitization has not been
explicitly examined in the existing research on desensitization to
community violence. This cross-sectional study showed that ECV
predicted more aggressive beliefs and in turn more aggressive
behavior in African-American youth (Boxer et al., 2008). It is
important to extend this research with longitudinal designs that
provide more information about the cumulative effects of ECV and
the development of behavior problems over time, as it has been
proposed that desensitization to violence is a gradual process
occurring over time (e.g., Ferguson, 2014). Consistent with habit-
uation, initial exposure to violence may predict cognitive aversion,
but after repeated exposure, youth may develop aggression-
supporting cognitions or beliefs. Also, the associations between
ECV and aggression may be masking the effect of aggression that
occurs before measurement of ECV (Bartholow et al., 2006), and
research controlling for baseline rates of violent behavior is
warranted.
The purpose of the current study was to examine emotional and
cognitive desensitization effects of community violence exposure
in male adolescents of color. To this aim, the current study ex-
tended prior research by examining depressive symptoms and
deviant beliefs as mediators of the association between ECV and
violent behavior over time. It was predicted that at high levels of
ECV in middle adolescence, lower levels of depressive symptoms,
and higher levels of deviant beliefs would predict more violent
behavior in late adolescence. Testing longitudinal mediation mod-
els of desensitization will allow us to disentangle the complex
effects of ECV on the psychological functioning of male adoles-
cents of color, thus providing a clearer roadmap for intervention
for this population.
The Current Study
Although there have been some successful efforts to curtail
violence and crime in urban communities, male adolescents of
color who reside in these communities remain vulnerable to high
levels of ECV. Desensitization may be one of the most dangerous
consequences of violence exposure because it is believed to lead to
violence perpetration and additional violence exposure as youth
begin to experience emotional numbing, view violence as norma-
tive, and lose inhibitions about using violent behavior (Garbarino
et al., 1991). However, little is known about various forms of
desensitization and how the phenomenon is linked to subsequent
violent behavior. Further, existing studies of desensitization are
 EXAMINING EMOTIONAL AND COGNITIVE DESENSITIZATION
either limited by cross-sectional designs, have not isolated the
effects of community violence from other forms of violence, or do
not focus on those with the highest rates of ECV (McCart et al.,
2007; Mrug et al., 2008). Given these limitations, it is imperative
that researchers devote continued efforts to advancing this con-
struct empirically.
Adolescence is an ideal developmental stage to examine such
patterns in ECV in this population, as behavioral patterns related to
violence and aggression, which may emerge during childhood or
early adolescence, reach their peak prevalence during this time
(e.g., Tolan, Gorman-Smith, & Henry, 2003). Further, develop-
mental neuroscience research details the changes in structural and
functional aspects of brain development during adolescence, and
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demonstrates that areas of the brain involved in emotion regulation
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are still developing during adolescence (Ahmed, Bittencourt-
Hewitt, & Sebastian, 2015). As such, the higher order cognitive
processes that impact emotion-regulation are not fully coordinated
and controlled during adolescence, resulting in difficulties with
mood (Steinberg, 2005). The current study builds on existing
research in this area in a number of ways. First, the study focuses
specifically on ECV in male adolescents of color, a group at
heightened vulnerability for desensitization to ECV (Ng-Mak et
al., 2002). Also, implicit in existing models is the notion that
desensitization is the result of repeated exposure over time. The
current study used data from multiple time points to examine the
cumulative effect of ECV on desensitization outcomes. Building
on prior research, it was predicted that the longitudinal association
between community violence exposure and violent behavior would
be mediated by depressive symptoms and deviant beliefs, provid-
ing a more direct test of proposed paths for the effects of desen-
sitization. Specifically, Hypothesis 1 predicted that at high levels
of ECV in middle adolescence, lower levels of depressive symp-
toms would predict violent behavior in late adolescence. Hypoth-
esis 2 predicted that at high levels of ECV in middle adolescence,
higher levels of deviant beliefs would predict more violent behav-
ior in late adolescence.
Method
Original Database
Data for the current study were derived from an archival dataset,
the Chicago Youth Development Study (CYDS), which investi-
gated developmental pathways leading to the onset of and partic-
ipation in antisocial behaviors during early adolescence. Data
collection for the original longitudinal study started in 1991, and
participants and their caregivers were surveyed approximately
annually over five years with multimodal assessments.
Participants were initially recruited from the fifth and seventh
grades of 17 Chicago public schools. After obtaining parental
consent and youth assent for teacher ratings, 1,105 males (92% of
fifth- and seventh-grade males in the school) were screened with
the Achenbach Teacher Rating Form (Achenbach, 1991). Potential
participants were then selected for participation in the longitudinal
study so that 50% of them were considered at “high risk” for the
development of serious aggression on the basis of teacher ratings
indicating that they were already engaging in high levels of ag-
gressive behavior (above the 90th percentile using national norms).
After this categorization, participants were randomly selected from
465
the remainder of those screened. Additional parental consent and
child assent were obtained prior to the first wave of assessment.
During the first wave of interviews, there were a total of 341
fifth and seventh grade males (range ⫽ 11–14 years, mean age ⫽
12.41 years). Subsequent waves were collected when participants
were, on average 13, 14, 15, 18, and 19 years of age (Prince et al.,
2016). Specifically, these youth included 208 African American
and 133 Latino males residing in urban neighborhoods character-
ized by high violence and high poverty. Among these individuals,
62% lived in single-parent homes, 47.6% had a total family in-
come below $10,000 per year, and 73.5% had incomes below
$20,000 per year.1
Participants had been interviewed in their homes or in a mutu-
ally agreed-upon location by trained interviewers when the youth
were in sixth or eighth grades. These interviews lasted between 3
to 3.5 hr, and the same information was collected across partici-
pants during each wave. After a joint family interaction task,
individual interviews were conducted separately with the partici-
pant and his caregiver(s). The study was successful in tracking and
assessing study participants from Waves 2 to 6. The first cohort
was assessed from the sixth to eleventh grades, while the second
cohort was assessed from the eighth to twelfth grades. More than
73% of the youth participants completed self-report data for each
of the waves of data collection. Specifically, a majority (86%) of
participants completed self-report data for at least 3 out of the
possible 5 assessments.
Participants in the Current Study
In the current study, analyses included 250 participants who
completed at least one interview during Waves 2– 4 and at least
one interview during Waves 5– 6 of the CYDS. Of the 250 par-
ticipants included in the current analyses, 67% were African
American and 33% were Latino. Consistent with other studies
using the CYDS data (e.g., Brady, Gorman-Smith, Henry, &
Tolan, 2008), in the current analyses, Waves 2– 4 from the original
study were combined to represent Time 1 (average age ⫽ 15.31,
SD ⫽ 1.19) and Waves 5– 6 from the original study were combined
to represent Time 2 (average age ⫽ 19.11, SD ⫽ 1.19).
Procedure for the Current Study
For the current study, data were extracted from the original
study for participants who completed measures assessing exposure
to community violence, deviant behaviors, depressive symptoms,
and violent behavior at least once during Waves 2– 4 (84% of those
interviewed during Wave 1) and participated in at least one inter-
view during Waves 5 and 6 (73% of those interviewed during
Wave 1; 88% of those interviewed during Waves 2– 4). Compar-
ison of data from the current sample with data from those not
continuing after the initial interview yielded no significant differ-
ences on initial teacher ratings of aggression, F(1, 524) ⫽ 0.57,
p ⫽ .45, or official arrest records (ever arrested) as of Wave 4,
1
The poverty threshold for a family of three with two related children
was $10,973 in 1991 (https://www.census.gov/hhes/www.poverty/data/
threshld/).
 466 GAYLORD-HARDEN, SO, BAI, AND TOLAN
␹2(1, N ⫽ 298) ⫽ 0.37, p ⫽ .54. Comparisons were also made for
general purposes between data from those continuing to participate
and data from those not continuing for each wave on the predictors
and behavioral measures. There were no significant differences in
the current study variables.
Measures
Demographic information. Demographic information,
including ethnicity, age, parental marital status, income, household
size, and relationship to the target youth had been collected from
the caregiver(s).
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Pretest aggression status. Prior to the first wave of
data collection, teachers completed the Achenbach Teacher Rating
Form (TRF; Achenbach, 1991) to assess participants’ aggressive
behaviors. The TRF is a teacher-report measure that includes an
aggressive behavior scale. Scores on the aggressive behavior scale
were used in the CYDS study to determine pretest aggression
status. Participants with a score above the 90th percentile using
national norms were coded as high aggression and other youth
were coded as low aggression (Gorman-Smith & Tolan, 1998). In
the current sample, 54% of youth were categorized as low aggres-
sion, and 46% were categorized as high aggression.
Community violence exposure. Exposure to commu-
nity violence had been measured at Waves 2–5 using the Exposure
to Violence Interview, a section of the CYDS Stress and Coping
Interview (Tolan & Gorman-Smith, 1991). During each annual
interview, participants were asked to indicate the number of times
they had witnessed the following five events within the past year:
(1) anyone in your family was robbed or attacked (or otherwise
hurt intentionally by someone), (2) someone else you know, other
than a member of your family, was beaten, attacked, or really hurt
by others, (3) you saw anyone beaten up, (4) you saw anyone shot
or killed, (5) you witnessed any violent crime (not counting what
you have already told me about). Reported frequencies were re-
coded using the scale: 0 ⫽ none, 1 ⫽ once, 2 ⫽ more than once.
The mean score of these items was computed to create a score for
the overall frequency of witnessing community violence averaging
across Waves 2– 4 (Time 1) and Waves 5– 6 (Time 2) separately.
Depressive symptoms. The 27-item Child Depression
Inventory (CDI; Kovacs, 1992) and the 21-item Beck Depression
Inventory (BDI; Beck, Ward, Mendelson, Mock, & Erbaugh,
1961) were used as measures of depressive symptoms. Participants
completed the CDI at Waves 2– 4. The CDI is a widely used
measure of youth depression consisting of 27 items. Each item
contains three sentences, and respondents are asked to choose the
sentence within each item that most closely describes him over the
past two weeks. The 27 items can be combined to provide a score
that measures overall depression with higher scores indicating
higher levels of depression. An overall score for Time 1 was
generated by combining scores from Waves 2– 4. Cronbach’s
alpha in the current sample was .86 at wave 2. Given that the
average age for participants at Waves 5– 6 was 19 years old and
beyond the age limit for the CDI, participants at those waves
completed the BDI (Beck et al., 1961). The BDI is a validated
measurement scale consisting of 21 items to assess the intensity of
symptoms of depression. Each item is a list of four statements
arranged in increasing severity about a symptom of depression.
Respondents were asked to choose the sentence within each item
that most closely described him over the past two weeks. The 21
items combine to provide a score that measures overall depression
with higher scores indicating more depression. An overall score for
Time 2 was generated by combining scores from Waves 5– 6.
Cronbach’s alpha in the current sample was .87 at wave 5. The
correlation between the CDI at Waves 2– 4 and the BDI at Waves
5– 6 is .21 (p ⬍ .001).
Deviant beliefs. Deviant beliefs/cognitions had been as-
sessed using the 4-item deviant beliefs subscale of the Family
Relationship Scale (Tolan, Gorman-Smith, Huesmann, & Zelli,
1997). Shared deviant beliefs represents values shared by family
members with regards to deviant behavior, and includes 4 items:
“It’s OK to fight if the other guys says bad things about your
family,” “It’s OK to steal something from someone who is rich and
can easily replace it,” “It’s OK to skip school every once in
awhile,” and “It’s OK to lie to someone if it will keep you out of
trouble with them.” The measure computes a product score of the
belief items, combining mother and adolescent report, to obtain an
index of agreement among family members. This score captured
the extent of endorsement by each individual, as well as the
agreement across sources (Gorman-Smith et al., 1998; Tolan et al.,
1997). For the present analyses, the Shared Deviant Beliefs sub-
scale (␣ ⫽ .68) was used with higher scores indicating higher
levels of deviant beliefs.
Violent behavior. At each wave, youth participants com-
pleted a modified version of the Self-Report of Delinquency (SRD;
Elliott, Dunford, & Huizinga, 1987). Youth participants indicated
the number of times they had engaged in any of eight violent
behaviors within the past year: (1) threw objects at people, (2)
became involved in gang fights, (3) hit someone with intent to
harm, (4) carried a hidden weapon, (5) hurt or threatened someone
for sex, (6) tried to force someone to have sex, (7) used a weapon
or force to get something, (8) attacked someone with a weapon.
Reported frequencies for each event were recoded (0 ⫽ none, 1 ⫽
once, 2 ⫽ more than once) and weighted for legal seriousness,
ranging from an index of 4 (Class A misdemeanors, e.g., Item 1)
to an index of 8 (Class 1, corresponding to serious felonies, e.g.,
Item 8; Tolan et al., 2003). After summing across weighted scores
for each item within wave, composite scores were created for
violent behavior by averaging across Waves 2– 4 (Time 1) and
Waves 5– 6 (Time 2) separately. Because of positive skewness of
the composite scores, natural log transformations were used in the
analyses.
Analytic Plan
To test Hypotheses 1 and 2, that the longitudinal association
between Time 1 ECV and Time 2 violent behavior would be
mediated by Time 2 depressive symptoms and deviant beliefs,
bias-corrected bootstrapping procedure macros in Statistical Pack-
age for the Social Sciences (SPSS) were used. Bootstrapping
provides the most powerful and reasonable method of obtaining
confidence limits for specific indirect effects (Preacher & Hayes,
 EXAMINING EMOTIONAL AND COGNITIVE DESENSITIZATION 467

2008). Bootstrapping methods are preferred over the Sobel test Results
because the Sobel test makes unrealistic assumptions about the
shape of the sampling distribution of the indirect effect. Bootstrap- Descriptive Analyses
ping yields k estimates of the total and specific indirect effects of
X on Y with resampled data, and the bootstrap confidence interval Means and standard deviations for each of the study variables
are listed in Table 1. Correlations among the study variables are
(CI) for the population-specific indirect effect through the media-
also presented in Table 1. During Time 1 (Waves 2– 4) of the
tor is derived by sorting the k values from low to high (Preacher &
study, 87% of youth reported exposure to violence in the past year,
Hayes, 2008). If the 95% CI does not contain zero, the indirect
and 64% reported exposure to more than one event.
effect is significantly different from zero.
Consistent with a desensitization effect, it was expected that
the association of Time 1 ECV to Time 2 depressive symptoms Hypothesis 1: Depressive Symptoms
and deviant beliefs would be curvilinear. Therefore, the MED- as a Mediator
CURVE macro for SPSS was used to test the proposed medi-
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ation model. MEDCURVE does not impose the constraint that The results indicated that the quadratic term for Time 1 ECV
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the paths between variables are linear in nature and estimates
instantaneous indirect effects of a causal variable (X) on the
outcome variable (Y) through a proposed mediator (M; Hayes
& Preacher, 2010). Instantaneous indirect effects of X on Y
through M quantifies the change in Y through M as X is
changing to account for nonlinear associations in the model,
such as between X and M (Hayes & Preacher, 2010). MED-
CURVE generates bias corrected bootstrap confidence intervals
for instantaneous indirect effects on specific values of X, typ-
ically 1 standard deviation above the mean, the sample mean,
and one standard deviation below the mean (Hayes & Preacher,
2010). By utilizing the MEDCURVE macro in SPSS, the model
specified that Time 2 depressive symptoms (M) were a qua-
dratic effect of Time 1 ECV (X), controlling for average par-
ticipant age at Time 1, ethnicity, and pretest aggression status,
Time 1 violent behaviors (W1), Time 1 depressive symptoms
(W2). Further, Time 2 violent behavior (Y) was modeled as
exponentially related to Time 2 depressive symptoms (M) con-
trolling for average participant age at Time 1, ethnicity, and
pretest aggression status, the curvilinear effect of Time 1 ECV
(X), as well as the linear effects of Time 1 violent behaviors
(W1) and Time 1 depressive symptoms (W2; Hayes & Preacher,
2010).
was significantly related to Time 2 depressive symptoms (p ⫽ .03)
and that there was a significant mediational effect. However,
because of the curvilinear association between ECV and depres-
sive symptoms (see Figure 1), the direction of the mediation effect
depended on the levels of violence exposure at Time 1. Bootstrap-
ping analysis revealed that at low levels of community violence
exposure at Time 1, the quadratic term for ECV significantly
predicted increases in Time 2 violent behaviors through its effects
on Time 2 depressive symptoms (␪[.13] ⫽ .33; 95% CI [.02, .75]).
Bootstrapping analysis also revealed that at high levels of com-
munity violence exposure at Time 1, the quadratic term for ECV
significantly predicted decreases in Time 2 violent behaviors
through its effects on Time 2 depressive symptoms (␪[.68] ⫽
⫺.17; 95% CI [⫺.42, .01]). At moderate (␪[.40] ⫽ .08; 95% CI
[⫺.10, .30]) levels of ECV at Time 1, increases in ECV had no
effect on violent behaviors through depressive symptoms. In sum,
depressive symptoms mediated the relationship between ECV and
violent behavior at high and low levels of ECV at Time 1.
Hypothesis 2: Deviant Beliefs as a Mediator
The model specified that Time 2 deviant beliefs (M) were a
mediator between Time 1 ECV and Time 2 violent behaviors,

Table 1. Means, Standard Deviations, and Correlations Among the Study Variables

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1. T1 violence exposure —
2. T1 depression (CDI) .19ⴱⴱ —
3. T2 depression (BDI) .09 .21ⴱⴱ —
4. T1 deviant beliefs .23ⴱⴱⴱ .32ⴱⴱⴱ .09
5. T2 deviant beliefs .13ⴱ .21ⴱⴱ .13ⴱ .34ⴱⴱⴱ
6. T1 violent behavior .41ⴱⴱⴱ .11 .17ⴱⴱ .23ⴱⴱⴱ .17ⴱⴱ —
7. T2 violent behavior .25ⴱⴱⴱ .14ⴱ .33ⴱⴱⴱ .15ⴱ .28ⴱⴱⴱ .32ⴱⴱⴱ —
8. Pretest aggression status .15ⴱⴱ ⫺.03 .09 .06 .009 .14ⴱ .04 —
9. T1 average participant age .04 ⫺.11 .09 .13ⴱ .003 .14ⴱ ⫺.06 .09 —
10. Ethnic group ⫺.05 .06 ⫺.04 .19ⴱⴱ .03 ⫺.10 ⫺.09 ⫺.13ⴱ ⫺.12 —
Mean .41 5.35 4.59 8.08 6.93 1.06 .90 1.45 15.31 1.31
Standard deviation .27 5.02 5.33 1.72 2.10 1.18 1.25 .50 1.19 .46

Note. A natural log transformation based on frequencies (none, once, more than once) and weighted for legal seriousness was used to correct skewness
in the violent behavior variables. The values for these variables represent the values of the transformed variables. Pretest Aggression Status: 1 ⫽ low
aggression, 2 ⫽ high aggression; Ethnic group: 1 ⫽ African American, 2 ⫽ Latino. T1 ⫽ Waves 2– 4 and T2 ⫽ Waves 5– 6.
ⴱ
p ⬍ .05. ⴱⴱ p ⬍ .01. ⴱⴱⴱ p ⬍ .001.
 468 GAYLORD-HARDEN, SO, BAI, AND TOLAN
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Figure 1. Linear and nonlinear associations between community violence exposure at Time 1 (Waves 2– 4),
violent behavior, and depressive symptoms at Time 2 (Waves 5– 6) presented as a scatterplot of cases around the
best fit regression curve (R2 ⫽ .07). Variables are standardized.

while controlling for average participant age at Time 1, ethnic-
ity, and pretest aggression status, Time 1 violent behaviors, and
Time 1 deviant beliefs. The results indicated that the quadratic
term for Time 1 ECV was not significantly related to Time 2
deviant beliefs (p ⫽ .23) and that the indirect effect of Time 1
ECV (X) and Time 2 violent behaviors (Y) was not statistically
different from zero at high (unstandardized indirect effect ⫽
.07, 95% CI [⫺.05, .28]) or low (unstandardized indirect ef-
fect ⫽ ⫺.15, 95% CI [⫺.51, .06]) levels of ECV. In other
words, Time 2 deviant beliefs were not found to be a significant
mediator in the longitudinal association between Time 1 ECV
and Time 2 violent behavior. See Figure 2.

T1 ECV c1 = 1.32*

a1= 6.50 c1' = .80

T2 Depressive T2 Violent
Symptoms b = .07*** Behaviors

a2 = -6.63* c2' = -.16

c2 = -.65
2
(T1 ECV)

Figure 2. Depressive symptoms as a mediator between Time 1 exposure to community violence (ECV) and
Time 2 violent behaviors. Path coefficients for depressive symptoms as a mediator between Time 1 exposure to
community violence (ECV) and Time 2 violent behaviors. Dotted lines indicate the effect of ECV on violent
behaviors when the mediator is excluded from the model. a, b, c, and c’ are unstandardized regression
coefficients. ⴱ p ⬍ .05. ⴱⴱⴱ p ⬍ .001.
 EXAMINING EMOTIONAL AND COGNITIVE DESENSITIZATION
Discussion
The aim of the current study was to examine emotional and
cognitive desensitization effects of community violence exposure
in male adolescents of color residing in low socioeconomic urban
neighborhoods. To this aim, the current study extended prior
research by examining depressive symptoms and deviant beliefs as
mediators of the association between ECV and violent behaviors
over time. In partial support of predictions for Hypothesis 1,
results indicated that depressive symptoms mediated the associa-
tion between ECV in middle adolescence and violent behavior in
late adolescence. The mediation effect was significant at both high
and low levels of ECV in middle adolescence, but it should be
noted that the direction of effects was inconsistent with predic-
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
tions. Specifically, at high levels of ECV in middle adolescence (1
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SD above the mean), the nonlinear association between ECV and
depressive symptoms predicted fewer violent behaviors in late
adolescence. At low levels of violence exposure in middle adoles-
cence (1 SD below the mean), the nonlinear association between
ECV and depressive symptoms predicted more violent behaviors
in late adolescence. Inconsistent with Hypothesis 2, deviant beliefs
did not significantly mediate the association between community
violence exposure and subsequent violent behavior.
Mediation Effects for Depressive Symptoms
The current study extended prior research by applying a longi-
tudinal research design to the examination of desensitization to
ECV, as the existing investigations of the PAM (e.g., Boxer et al.,
2008; Gaylord-Harden et al., 2011; Ng-Mak et al., 2004) are
cross-sectional in nature. Although these prior studies provide
support for emotional desensitization to violence, some research
finds that the effects of violence exposure on youth developmental
outcomes are time-limited (Sharkey, 2010). By including assess-
ments of violence at multiple time points during middle adoles-
cence, the current findings demonstrate that middle adolescence is
a particularly vulnerable time for increases in ECV, with effects on
emotional and behavioral outcomes that extend into late adoles-
cence. Given the increasing shifts in roles, responsibilities, and
expectations that are occurring during this developmental period
(Tolan, 2014), increases in a non-normative stressor, such as ECV,
may be especially detrimental for optimal developmental out-
comes of males of color during middle adolescence (Kuther &
Wallace, 2003).
In particular, the current study sought to determine whether
desensitization effects would mediate the association between
ECV and violent behavior. Discussions of the PAM suggest that
the decrease in depressive symptoms at high levels of ECV ac-
count for the subsequent increases in violent or aggressive behav-
ior (Ng-Mak et al., 2002), but very little research has explored the
role of emotional desensitization as a predictor of violent behavior
in adolescence, and no research has explored this association
specifically for male adolescents of color. Overall, the current
study demonstrated that depressive symptoms mediated the effects
of ECV on violent behavior, but interestingly, when examining
these associations at high and low levels of ECV, a more complex
pattern emerged from the data.
Specifically, ECV during middle adolescence for youth with
high levels of ECV predicted fewer violent behaviors in late
469
adolescence through its curvilinear effect on depressive symptoms.
Contrary to predictions, these findings suggest that emotional
desensitization may be protective for adolescent males with high
levels of ECV. Perhaps males with high levels of ECV and
experience emotional desensitization do indeed “adapt” emotion-
ally to the exposure with lower levels of depressive symptoms, as
posited in the PAM (Ng-Mak et al., 2002). As a result of repeated
ECV, these youth may have developed coping strategies (e.g.,
cognitive avoidance, distraction, substance use) that shield them
from symptoms of depression that may lead to more violent
behavior, such as hopelessness for the future (McMahon et al.,
2009). However, because of the strong links between ECV and
violent behavior in the literature, it should be acknowledged that
there may be different pathways to violent behavior for youth with
initially high levels of ECV that were not assessed in the current
study. For example, normative beliefs about aggression (e.g.,
Boxer et al., 2008) have been identified as mediators of the
relationship between violence exposure and violent behavior for
youth exposed to high levels of violence. High levels of violence
may lead to a “normalization of violence” or cognitive desensiti-
zation (Boxer et al., 2008; Colder, Mott, Levy, & Flay, 2000;
McMahon et al., 2009). Perhaps this cognitive desensitization
process is more of a vulnerability factor than emotional desensi-
tization for youth with high ECV.
In contrast to high exposure, ECV for youth low in violence
exposure at middle adolescence increased violent behavior in late
adolescence through its curvilinear effect on depressive symptoms.
While the PAM focuses on the risk of violent behavior for youth
exposed to the high rates of ECV, our findings suggest that the
likelihood of violent behavior is heightened for youth with initially
low levels of ECV. Perhaps male adolescents of color who have
maintained low levels of ECV up to middle adolescence found
ways to stay protected in risky contexts during early adolescence.
ECV during middle adolescence may be a novel experience for
boys with initially low levels of violence, and their emotional
desensitization response may reflect a trauma reaction to ECV
(Porter, 1996). As noted above, when youth experience avoidance
or numbing symptoms associated with Posttraumatic Stress Dis-
order (PTSD), they may underreport their affective symptoms of
depression (McCart et al., 2007; Mrug et al., 2008). Further, these
youth may not have developed the coping or emotion regulation
skills to manage their emotional desensitization reaction to in-
creases in ECV, and as a result, they may “act out” by exhibiting
externalizing behaviors.
Also, some research with African American youth suggests that
ECV is associated with an attenuated salivary cortisol response
(Aiyer, Heinze, Miller, Stoddard, & Zimmerman, 2014; Kliewer,
2006, 2016). Meta-analytic findings show that uncontrollable,
physically threatening, and traumatic stressors, such as community
violence, produce lower than-normal cortisol levels in the morning
and higher-than-normal cortisol levels in the evening (Miller,
Chen, & Zhou, 2007). Abnormal levels of cortisol, in tandem with
abnormalities in levels of norepinephrine, are associated with
hyperarousal in children exposed to trauma (Kendall-Tackett,
2000). Indeed, exposure to community violence is consistently
associated with more self-reported hyperarousal symptoms in
African-American adolescents (Fowler, Tompsett, Braciszewski,
Jacques-Tiura, & Baltes, 2009; Margolin & Gordis, 2000; Mazza
& Reynolds, 1999; Paxton, Robinson, Shah, & Schoeny, 2004;
 470 GAYLORD-HARDEN, SO, BAI, AND TOLAN
Singer, Anglin, yu Song, & Lunghofer, 1995), and hyperarousal
symptoms have been found to lead to emotional numbing or
desensitization (Weems, Saltzman, Reiss, & Carrion, 2003). Fu-
ture research on this topic may benefit from the inclusion of the
measurement of cortisol and other biological indicators to more
adequately capture the role of PTSD symptoms in the emotional
desensitization process.
Although the findings of the current study were inconsistent
with Mrug et al.’s (2016) recent findings, the current study focused
on ECV, while Mrug et al. (2016) focused on violence exposure
across multiple contexts. The current results may be specific to
ECV, but there is a need for additional research to fully understand
whether the findings are unique to one context. Further, because of
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methodological constraints in the measurement of ECV, the cur-
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
rent study focused on witnessing violence and not victimization.
Although witnessing violence produced desensitization effects in
the current study, victimization is more likely than witnessing to
lead to violent behavior because the greater proximity to violence
leads to a stronger emotional numbing response that facilitates
violent reactions and provides stronger reinforcement of the effec-
tiveness of violence as a way to solve problems (Fowler et al.,
2009; Kerig et al., 2012). Future research with male adolescents of
color should assess desensitization effects separately for witness-
ing violence and victimization.
Mediation Effects for Deviant Beliefs
It is unclear why community violence exposure was unrelated to
deviant beliefs in the current study. Social-cognitive models of
exposure to violence suggest that the activation of cognitive sche-
mas plays an important role in the relationship between violence
exposure and subsequent violent behavior (Guerra, Huesmann, &
Spindler, 2003; Tolan, Guerra, & Kendall, 1995). In this theoret-
ical model, exposure to violence activates schemas that increase
the normative beliefs and acceptance of violence as a form of
conflict resolution (Huesmann, 1998; McMahon et al., 2009).
While research exploring the links between ECV and social infor-
mation processing is less prevalent than research linking other
forms of violence exposure to social information processing, there
are some studies that demonstrate positive associations between
community violence exposure and normative beliefs about aggres-
sion (e.g., Guerra et al., 2003; Malik, Sorenson, & Aneshensel,
1997; Shahinfar, Kupersmidt, & Matza, 2001). Further, one study
showed that beliefs in retaliation influence the association between
violence exposure and violence perpetration (McMahon et al.,
2009). It should be noted that some of the items on the deviant
beliefs measure were not specific to beliefs about aggression,
which may have made it more difficult to detect a possible asso-
ciation between ECV and deviant beliefs.
However, findings across these studies suggest that the effects
of ECV on beliefs about aggression are not clear-cut. For example,
one study found that violence exposure predicted increases in
aggressive beliefs, but only during later elementary school years,
compared with early elementary school years (Guerra et al., 2003).
The authors speculate that the effects of community violence
exposure on aggressive beliefs are the result of a habituation
process that occurs over an extended period of time and show the
strongest effects during later elementary school years. Perhaps for
youth exposed to community violence since childhood, the effect
on aggressive beliefs stabilizes by late adolescence. Further, devi-
ant beliefs were assessed as the level of agreement between par-
ticipants and their parents on the acceptability of deviant behav-
iors. Research demonstrates that this subscale is positively
associated with family cohesion, and thus deviant beliefs may be
inadvertently representing more closeness and communication in
the family (Tolan et al., 1997), rather than a maladaptive aspect of
family functioning. Thus, the responses to the deviant beliefs
measure may be related to the various types of various exposure.
For example, victimization to a family member may have a dif-
ferential impact on deviant beliefs than exposure to someone not in
the family because these questions ask about values shared by
family members and family members may also be more likely to
endorse these beliefs if they were also victimized.
Finally, according to the Social Information Processing Model
(Dodge & Crick, 1990), there are multiple domains of cognition
that may be associated with ECV. Research assessing multiple
domains of social cognitions shows that different forms of com-
munity violence are associated with different types of social cog-
nition processes (Shahinfar et al., 2001). The inclusion of multiple
types of cognitive variables is similar to media violence research
that distinguishes between multiple social cognition variables,
such as individuals’ perceptions of violence as the norm, decreased
negative attitudes toward violence, and decreased empathy (Car-
nagey, Anderson, & Bushman, 2007). In addition to distinguishing
between various forms of violence exposure, future research on
cognitive desensitization may benefit from assessing multiple
components of social information processing.
Limitations and Strengths
The results of the current study should be considered in light of
potential limitations. First, we do not have data on the countries of
origin for the Latino youth and their families. Second, because the
current sample is a school-based sample, the most violence-
exposed or aggressive youth may have dropped out or have been
expelled from the school system, and thus may have been inad-
vertently excluded from participation in the study. Likewise, ECV
was represented by witnessing violence only and not victimization,
which may have impacted the validity of high and low levels of
ECV in the current study by not adequately representing the most
violence-exposed youth. Also, the measure used to assess deviant
beliefs was not specific to youth report and, instead, assessed the
agreement among youth and parents regarding their beliefs about
delinquent behavior. While this method of assessing family func-
tioning has been validated in the current sample (Gorman-Smith et
al., 1998; Tolan et al., 1997), future research in this area should
consider youth self-report of deviant beliefs. Further, in order to
examine the cumulative effects of ECV and consistent with other
studies using the CYDS dataset (e.g., Brady et al., 2008), the
current study combined data across time points, resulting in a
two-wave study or a half-longitudinal design (Cole & Maxwell,
2003). While two waves of data are acceptable for examining
mediation effects (Cole & Maxwell, 2003), and half-longitudinal
designs have been used in prior meditational research on violence
exposure in youth (e.g., McMahon et al., 2009), mediation models
are best tested with at least three time points (Cole & Maxwell,
2003). In addition, while the average ages of participants at the
Time 1 (15 years old) and Time 2 (19 years old) data points
 EXAMINING EMOTIONAL AND COGNITIVE DESENSITIZATION
correspond with the accepted ages for middle (ages 15–17) and
late adolescence (ages 18 and above; Ashford & LeCroy, 2009),
this approach of combining data to create time points may have
masked some characteristics of the data, such as the stability over
time. However, it should be noted that the design in the current
study represents a clear improvement over simple cross-sectional
designs that predominate the literature on desensitization to ECV.
Specifically, the current study’s longitudinal, prospective design
assesses violence exposure over multiple time points, which is
important given that male youth of color in urban communities
experience repeated violence exposure over time (Miller et al.,
1999).
Finally, the generalizability of the findings may be limited to
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
African-American and Latino youth from families and communi-
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
ties with high levels of poverty, violence, and associated stressors.
Although youth from all racial/ethnic backgrounds and communi-
ties experience violence exposure (e.g., Finkelhor, Turner, Orm-
rod, & Hamby, 2009), community violence occurs with more
frequency in low-income communities, and thus, males of color in
these communities may be more likely to experience emotional
numbing than males of color in more affluent communities with
isolated incidents of violence. Further, there may be resources
available for African-American and Latino youth in higher socio-
economic communities that mitigate the impact of ECV on
outcomes.
Although the current study’s focus on male adolescents of color
from low-income communities limits the generalizability of the
findings, the emphasis on this population is also a strength as it
supports understanding the unique experiences of a group that is
exposed to higher rates of community violence than other groups
of youth (Zimmerman & Messner, 2013). Future research should
also examine the associations between the study variables in
female adolescents of color. Future research should determine
whether the decreased rates of depressive symptoms in this sample
are due to posttrauma emotional numbing (Allwood et al., 2011) or
due to active attempts to suppress depressive symptoms (Flynn,
Hollenstein, & Mackey, 2010). Further, males may suppress de-
pressive symptoms to facilitate their ability to navigate dangerous
neighborhoods (Cassidy & Stevenson, 2005). Also, existing stud-
ies of desensitization to community violence in youth of color
from urban communities are cross-sectional (Boxer et al., 2008;
Gaylord-Harden et al., 2011), and there is a need for longitudinal
investigations. The current study’s longitudinal, prospective de-
sign assesses ECV over multiple time points, which is important
given that male youth of color in urban communities experience
repeated ECV over time (Miller et al., 1999). Finally, the current
study focuses on community violence, and not other forms of
violence. It is well-documented that ECV is one risk factor that is
heavily linked to other risk factors, including other forms of
violence exposure (e.g., Finkelhor, Ormrod, & Turner, 2009);
however, research suggests that ECV shows unique effects on
youth psychosocial functioning (Overstreet & Mazza, 2003). Fu-
ture research should also consider the role of relationship proxim-
ity to victims in desensitization to community violence. Existing
research demonstrates that witnessing violence against family
members and close friends predicted more depressive symptoms;
but there were no associations between depressive symptoms and
witnessing violence against an acquaintance or a stranger (Lam-
bert, Boyd, Cammack, & Ialongo, 2012).
471
Conclusion
Overall, the examination of desensitization in the current sample
potentially helps to identify specific periods of vulnerability, crit-
ical levels of ecological risk, and vulnerability factors to provide
information regarding when, where, and how to intervene in the
lives of young males of color exposed to community violence.
Specifically, the findings suggest that the implications of emo-
tional desensitization on subsequent perpetration of violence found
in other research (Mrug et al., 2016) may be specific to youth with
initially low levels of ECV. The current data point to the impor-
tance of early detection of levels of ECV during early and middle
adolescence to identify youth who may be more likely to exhibit
violent behavior in late adolescence and early adulthood. These
long-term effects of emotional desensitization may highlight a
need for intervention efforts to include emotion regulation strate-
gies for young males of color who witness community violence.
The violent behavior outcomes that were linked to emotional
desensitization in the current study carry legal ramifications and
efforts to reduce the likelihood of these behaviors may, in turn,
reduce rates of school suspension, expulsion, and incarceration in
males of color. Understanding how individual (i.e., deviant beliefs,
depressive symptoms) factors may increase the risk of maladaptive
outcomes in response to exposure to community violence yields
information about malleable processes that can be targeted to
maximize intervention efficacy/effectiveness for this population.
Keywords: community violence exposure; violent behaviors;
depressive symptoms; desensitization; males of color
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