Does parenting mediate the effects of exposure to violence on violent behavior? An ecological–transactional model of community violence

Three waves of longitudinal data from a high poverty sample of 1544 African American youth were used to test an ecological–transactional model of violence. SEM analyses were conducted to determine whether parenting (Time 2) mediated the effects of exposure to violence (Time 1) on violent behaviors (Time 3). Findings supported the specified model. Multigroup SEM analyses indicated that neither family structure nor developmental stage (early versus middle/late adolescence) moderated these effects. However, exposure to violence had a larger effect on violent behaviors in female versus male youth, although the difference was simply in magnitude, not direction. A final model that predicted change scores also provided support for the hypothesized ecological–transactional model of violence.