National Study of Children's Exposure to Violence: Trend Survey Wave II

The primary purpose of this project is to conduct Wave II of a national longitudinal trend survey to document changes in the incidence and prevalence of children's exposure to a broad array of violence, crime and abuse experiences. Data will be collected from a second sample of U.S. children and adolescents age 0-17, three years following the first wave of data collection. Another main objective is the development of a "tool kit" designed to provide guidelines, procedures, and data collection instruments for conducting local community surveys. Analyses will be organized around two major goals: 1) the estimation of current incidence and prevalence of children's exposure to violence within and across specific forms and categories of victimization; and 2) assessment changes in the incidence and prevalence of childrens exposure to violence and victimization across a three year period from 2008 to 2011, using the baseline NatSCEV as the comparison sample. NCA/NCF

OJJDP has a specific mission to develop and disseminate knowledge about what works to prevent juvenile delinquency and violence and improve the effectiveness of the juvenile justice system. The Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974, 42 U.S.C. § 5601 et seq authorizes the Administrator of OJJDP to conduct research or evaluations and undertake statistical analyses on a wide range of juvenile justice matters. OJJDP also provides funding to states and localities to carry out research, evaluation, and statistical analyses.

This award is for surveillance work on the National Survey of Children's Exposure to Violence (NATSCEV), a national study to document the incidence and prevalence of children's exposure to a broad array of violence, crime, and abuse experiences. The supplemental work in this component includes the completion of Wave II and the conduct Wave III to provide national trend data. The supplement also involves the incorporation and analysis of additional measures concerning "Stable, Safe, and Nurturing Relationships" (SSNRs), and their contribution as risk and protective factors to children's safety. The project is jointly sponsored by OJJDP and CDC.

Data will be collected from a third sample of U.S. children and adolescents age 0-17. Analyses will be organized around two major goals: 1) the estimation of current incidence and prevalence of children's exposure to violence within and across specific forms and categories of victimization; and 2) assessment changes in the incidence and prevalence of children's exposure to violence and victimization using the baseline NatSCEV as the comparison sample.

NCA/NCF

This program furthers the Department's mission by providing grants and cooperative agreements for research and evaluation activities to organizations that OJJDP designates.

The National Survey on Children Exposed to Violence has provided OJJDP and its partners at CDC with the first comprehensive national survey to measure a full range of violence exposure types across the full youth developmental age span. The National Survey of Children Exposed to Violence has generated some of the most significant findings around youth violence to date including the impact, nature and extent of violence exposure, and polyvictimization effects and thresholds. Funding from CDC has providing for the incorporation of measures on safe, stable and nurturing relationship in children and youth in order to better understand the positive influences and protective factors that can interrupt the negative impacts of violence exposure on children. The National Survey has completed an original data collection, a follow-up data collection and a wave II cohort data collection. Wave III is currently underway. This supplemental funding provided by CDC will be used to support additional data analysis and reporting of findings gathered through these data collections. The key project objectives for examining NatSCEV data will focus on a review about the compatibility of data with the CDC Adverse Childhood Experiences study and the complimentarity of the studies.
1) Improving the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Questionnaire: What is the best inventory of childhood adversities for maximizing predictive ability for a variety of outcomes and needs? In the work on NatSCEV II, the study has demonstrated that there were some key adversities missing from the original ACE scale formulation that could improve prediction of negative outcome specifically peer rejection and low socioeconomic status. In NatSCEV III, additional adversities will be explored and the researchers will examine whether items can be usefully customized according to population subgroups, and the possible usage of item weights will be considered.
2) Mechanisms and Mediators of ACE Impact: Do ACE outcomes differ by types of adverse childhood experiences? What are the mechanisms or mediators through which adverse childhood experiences exert their influence? Although the idea that childhood adversities result in negative outcomes is intuitive, a variety of different mechanisms have been hypothesized to explain this association, but the comparative importance of such mechanisms has not been adequately studied. Some writers put a lot of importance on certain physiological mechanisms, such as telomere shortening and HPA axis disregulation.
Some emphasize the influence on mental health variables, such as depression and traumatic stress symptoms. Some emphasize intermediary life course factors such as poor personal care, the choice of peers, or involvement with substance usage. Other possible mechanisms include childhood physical health problems and obesity. These different mechanisms may be alternative causal pathways, or they may be various elements of one causal pathway. In either case, the intermediary role they play is important for both prediction and prevention. A goal of NatSCEV under the auspices of this application is to develop knowledge about some of these pathways. The addition of physical health indices in NatSCEV III, together with mental health and substance use measures, are crucial for addressing this objective.
NCA/NCF