Exposure to violence, coping resources, and psychological adjustment of South African children

Abstract

The effects of exposure to direct and vicarious political, family, and community violence on the adjustment of 625 six-year-old black South African children were examined. Ambient community violence was most consistently related to children's psychosocial outcomes. Resources in the form of individual child resilience, maternal coping and positive family relationships were found to mitigate the adverse impact in all the assessed domains of children's functioning.