Fear of Violence, Family Support, and Well-Being among Urban Adolescents

Abstract

Our study examines how the fear of violence and family support influence adolescent social, psychological, and physical well-being, after controlling for exposure to violence and a range of demographic factors. We conduct a secondary analysis of the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN) data (N = 1337) using mixed-effect, multi-level regression models for the total sample and for males only and females only samples. We find that family support is the most robust, main effects predictor in all three models and across all outcomes. Our analyses show that the fear of violence is associated with increases in social problems (especially for boys) and with decreases in self-rated health. We discuss the results and implications in light of sociological theories on the health and well-being of adolescents.