Community Violence Exposure, Adverse Childhood Experiences, and Posttraumatic Distress Among Urban Development Workers

The current study examines community violence exposure among 254 urban community development workers located 111 five U.S. cities. Adulthood exposure to community violence. history of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), and current symptoms of posttraumatic distress (PTSD)) were assessed to test the hypothesis that a personal history or ACEs moderates the relationship between community violence exposure and PTSD symptom severity. Seventy-five percent of urban development workers reported direct community violence vietimization, 71% reported a history of at least one ACE. and 14% of the sample met probable diagnostic criteria for VEST). A multiple regression analysis confirmed that ACEs and indirect adulthood community violence exposure were significantly positively related to the severity of PTSD symptoms. These variables accounted for a small amount of variance in PTSD. Direct exposure to community violence and the interaction between ACEs and community violence did not contribute significant variance to the model. The implications and limitations arc discussed.