An investigation into the relationship between community violence exposure and adolescents' psychosocial well-being

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between community violence exposure and adolescents' subjective well-being in Cape Town, South Africa. Five hundred and sixty-eight learners, between the ages of 13-17 years, were selected from seven public schools within the Education Management and Development Centre (South Metropole) of the Western Cape Education Department. Data was collected using a structured questionnaire consisting of the Recent Exposure to violence scale and the Kidscreen-52. Pearsons Correlation Coefficient was used to analyse the data. Results indicated that a significant negative relationship exists between community violence exposure and subjective well-being. The relationship between exposure to community violence and well-being was further examined per area and although no relationship exists between low and medium violence areas, a significant negative relationship was found for those who reside in high violence areas. It was thus concluded that the relationship between well-being and violence exposure is not as pronounced as suggested by other literature.