Exposure to Violence (ETV) - Subject Follow-up

This measure appears in the following time-points: Follow06, Follow12, Follow18, Follow24, Follow30, Follow36, Follow48, Follow60, Follow72, Follow84.

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Related Construct

Exposure to Violence

Description of Measure

The Exposure to Violence Inventory (ETV; Selner-O'Hagan, Kindlon, Buka, Raudenbush, & Earls, 1998) was modified for this study to assess the frequency of exposure to violent events. Items from the ETV document the types of violence the adolescent has both experienced (i.e., Victim - 6 items, e.g., "Have you been chased where you thought you might be seriously hurt in the past N months?") and observed (i.e., Witnessed - 7 items, e.g., "Have you seen someone else being raped, an attempt made to rape someone or any other type of sexual attack in the past N months?"). In addition to these items about experiences with violent incidents, four questions inquire about the youth's exposure to death (e.g. has anyone close to you tried to kill him/her self in the past N months, has anyone close to you died in the past N months, have you found a dead body in the past N months, have you tried to kill yourself in the past N months). Finally, one open-ended item assesses involvement in other types of situations which could have led to death or serious injury. In total, this scale inquires about 18 types of situations. If an item is endorsed, a series of follow-up questions are asked. For most items (all of the "victim" and "witness" items with the exception of rape), the follow-up questions are limited to the frequency of the event. If the subject reveals that he/she has been raped or sexually assaulted, more detail is obtained. Specifically, four additional questions are asked (i.e. "has it happened more than once", "relationship of perpetrator", "location of incident", and "location if other").

In addition to the previous items, when an individual endorses trying to kill him/herself, the occurrence of this is also plotted on the monthly calendar covering the recall period. For example, if an adolescent indicated that he/she tried to kill him/herself during month 1 of the recall period, the value of the variable for that month would be 1.

The ETV was found to have adequate internal consistency at the baseline time-point (alphas: Total = .67; Victim =.62; Witnessed = .78). A multidimensional two-factor CFA model where certain measurement errors were allowed to covary was fit to the Pathways baseline data. For this model, NFI and NNFI are .927 and .927 respectively; the value of CFI = .944 and RMSEA = .047 (6/8/04). These scales were also found to have adequate internal consistency at the follow-up time points (6 month alphas: Total = .75; Victim =.56; Witnessed = .71; 12 month alphas: Total = .74; Victim =.53; Witnessed = .78; 18 month alphas: Total = .75; Victim =.54; Witnessed = .72; 24 month alphas: Total = .75; Victim =.51; Witnessed = .73). Confirmatory factor analyses were also conducted for each of the subscales (victim and witnesses). For the witness subscale, the following values were obtained: NFI: .95; NNFI: .935; CFI: .957; RMSEA: .069. For the victimization subscale, a confirmatory factor analysis revealed that a standardized solution containing all the items for this subscale that allowed the measurement error between items expv10 ("have you ever been shot at") and expv12 ("have you ever been shot") to covary showed acceptable fit (NFI=0.964, NNFI=0.957, CFI=0.977, RMSEA=0.035).

Three summary scores regarding violence exposure during the follow-up period are computed, with higher scores indicating a greater exposure to violence:

Exposure to Violence - Victim [S#EXPVIC]; count of items where subject was victim
Exposure to Violence - Witnessed [S#EXPWIT]; count of items subject witnessed
Exposure to Violence - Total [S#EXPTOT]; sum of the victim and witness scales endorsed

Data Issues

Variables S#Expv05 and S#Expv06 (rape/attempted rape), and S#Expv07 and S#Expv08 (attacks with a weapon) are skipped starting in version 01.19 if the subject was either in a federal facility for the entire recall period, or if the interview is being conducted in a federal facility. The first interview with this new logic pattern was completed in the follow36 timepoint. Items 05 and 07 are used in the computation of the witnessed and total summary scores, while 07 and 08 are used in the computation of the victim and total scores.
Variable S#Expv18 (attempted suicide) is skipped starting in version 01.19 if the interview is conducted in a federal facility. The first interview with this new logic pattern was completed in the 36month time-point.
Some cases are missing data for this measure as a result of data cleaning changes done in order to correct an interviewer mistake. Cases with this issue are noted with a missing value code of -800.

References

Selner-Ohagan, M., Kindlon, D., Buka, S., Raudenbush, S., and Earls, F. (1998). Assessing exposure to violence in urban youth. Journal of child Psychology and Psychiatry and allied Disciplines, 39(2), 215-224.