Numbing and Hyperarousal as Mediators of Exposure to Community Violence and Depression in Urban African-American Youth

Among urban African-American 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students ( n = 320), the specific posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTS) of numbing and hyperarousal were expected to mediate the relationship between exposure to community violence (ECV) and depressive symptoms in both cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses utilizing structural equation modeling. We found that cross-sectionally, numbing and hyperarousal were consistently robust mediators between ECV and depressive symptoms across time points. In addition, numbing and hyperarousal symptoms were found to partially mediate the relationship between ECV and depressive symptoms from 6th to 7th grade and 7th to 8th grade, but not from 6th to 8th grade. Findings are discussed for the clinical treatment of PTS and depressive symptoms among low-income urban African-American youth.