Although community violence and the deleterious behavioral and psychological consequences that are associated with exposure to community violence persist as serious public health concerns, identifying malleable factors that increase or decrease adolescents’ risk of exposure to community violence remains a significant gap in our knowledge base. This longitudinal study addresses this research gap by investigating adolescents’ endorsement of familismo values and participation in three types of after-school activities, specifically home-, school-, and community-based activities, as potential precursors to adolescents’ risk for experiencing community violence. The sample consists of 416 Latino high school students (53% female) with a mean age of 15.5 years (SD = 1.0) and with 85% qualifying for free and reduced school lunch. Cross-sectional results demonstrated that adolescents’ endorsement of the Latino cultural value of familismo was associated with lower rates of personal victimization. The frequency of non-structured community-based activities and part-time work were concurrently associated with higher rates of witnessing community violence and being personally victimized by violence. Only the frequency of non-structured community-based activities was related to witnessing more community violence and greater victimization one year later while controlling for prior exposure to violence. These findings underscore the importance of providing structured, well supervised after-school activities for low-income youth in high-risk neighborhoods.

尽管社区暴力以及与暴露于社区暴力相关的有害行为和心理后果仍然是严重的公共卫生问题，但确定增加或降低青少年暴露于社区暴力风险的可塑性因素仍然是我们知识库中的一个重大差距。这项纵向研究通过调查青少年对家庭主义价值观的认可和参与三种类型的课后活动，特别是家庭、学校和社区活动，作为青少年遭受社区暴力风险的潜在前兆，解决了这一研究差距. 样本由 416 名拉丁裔高中生（53% 为女性）组成，平均年龄为 15.5 岁（SD = 1.0)，并且 85% 的人有资格享受免费和减价的学校午餐。横断面结果表明，青少年对家庭主义的拉丁文化价值的认可与较低的个人受害率有关。非结构化社区活动和兼职工作的频率与目睹社区暴力和个人遭受暴力的更高比率同时相关。只有非结构化社区活动的频率与一年后目睹更多社区暴力和更多受害有关，同时控制之前的暴力暴露。这些调查结果强调了为高风险社区的低收入青年提供结构化、受到良好监督的课后活动的重要性。