DOI: 10.3886/icpsr03986.v1
title: Correlates and Consequences of Juvenile Exposure to Violence in the United States, 1995
title: Version 1

description: This study examined the effect of exposure to violence on
 juveniles. It was specifically concerned with juveniles' perceptions
 of violence in schools and communities and how exposure to violence
 served as a risk factor for juvenile drug and alcohol use and
 participation in other delinquent activities. It also sought to
 develop a more complete picture of the context and consequences of
 violence in schools. The data for this study were drawn from the
 NATIONAL SURVEY OF ADOLESCENTS IN THE UNITED STATES, 1995 (ICPSR
 2833). The data were collected through a national probability
 telephone sample of 4,023 juveniles and their parents or guardians.
 The current study drew primarily on the questions that were asked
 about respondents' experiences witnessing violence, their own
 victimization, peer and family deviance, their own delinquent
activities, and drug and alcohol use.
description: This study examined the effect of exposure to
 violence on juveniles. It was specifically concerned with juveniles'
 perceptions of violence in schools and communities and how exposure to
 violence served as a risk factor for juvenile drug and alcohol use and
 participation in other delinquent activities. The study sought to
 determine whether exposure to violence increased abuse, dependence,
 and regular use of drugs and alcohol, while controlling for
 demographic characteristics, family substance use, and peer deviance.
 Another objective of the study was to develop a more complete picture
 of the context and consequences of violence in schools. In particular,
 the study examined the effects of the type of violence witnessed, how
 recently the violence was witnessed, the relationship of the offender
 and victim to the witness, and whether the witness felt at risk during
the incident.
description: The data for this study are from the NATIONAL
 SURVEY OF ADOLESCENTS IN THE UNITED STATES, 1995 (ICPSR 2833). The
 current study drew primarily on the questions that were asked about
 respondents' experiences witnessing violence, their own victimization,
 peer and family deviance, their own delinquent activities, and drug
 and alcohol use. The NATIONAL SURVEY OF ADOLESCENTS IN THE UNITED
 STATES, 1995 (ICPSR 2833) consisted of a national probability
 telephone sample of 4,023 juveniles between the ages of 12-17 who (1)
 were living in United States households with telephones, (2) resided
 with a parent or guardian, and (3) could converse in English or
 Spanish. All sample selection and interviewing was done by Schulman,
 Ronca, and Bucuvalas, Inc. (SRBI), a New York-based survey research
 team. All interviews with both parents and adolescents were conducted
 using Computer- Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) technology.
 After determining that the household contained one or more eligible
 adolescents, interviewers asked to speak to a parent or guardian. One
 parent or guardian in each household was interviewed briefly to
 establish rapport, secure permission to interview the targeted
 adolescent, and to ensure the collection of comparative data to
 examine potential nonresponse bias from households without adolescent
 participation. Parents and guardians were provided the opportunity to
 call a toll-free number to confirm the authenticity of the study.
 Whenever possible, adolescents were interviewed immediately following
 the parent or guardian interviews. Otherwise, appointments were
 scheduled when possible or blind callbacks at different times of the
 day or days of the week were made. As an incentive for participation,
 adolescent participants received a certificate of participation in the
 "National Survey of Adolescents" and a check for five dollars as
 compensation for their time. From the surveys of parents and
 adolescents, the principal investigators created one data file by
 attaching the data from the parents to the records of their respective
adolescents.
description: Variables include adolescent respondents' answers
 to questions about whether violence and drug abuse were problems in
 their schools and communities, what types of violence they had
 personally witnessed, where, how recently, and who the victims and
 perpetrators were, their alcohol and drug use history, including types
 of drugs used, age of first use, frequency of use, and problems
 related to use, whether they had been victims of physical or sexual
 assault, family background, including whether respondent was subject
 to harsh physical punishment and whether anyone in the family had a
 problem with drinking or drug use, the delinquent behavior of
 respondents and their friends, including destruction of property,
 assault, theft, sexual assault, and gang activity, and demographic
 information, including age, race, gender, grade in school, and number
 of people in household. Parents provided the family's income level.
 Other variables include whether the respondent suffered from Post
 Traumatic Stress Disorder, a weighting variable based on 1995 census
 data, and several derived variables that were not included in the
 original dataset, including dichotomous variables related to extent of
 drug use, dichotomous variables indicating whether different kinds of
 violence were witnessed, and total times different kinds of violence
were witnessed.
description: Response Rates: Parents in 90.1 percent of eligible households
 completed interviews and parents in 78.9 percent of eligible
 households gave permission for their adolescents to be interviewed.
 Adolescent interviews were completed in 75 percent of eligible
 households, 83.2 percent of households with completed parent
interviews, and 95 percent of households with parental permission.
description: Presence of Common Scales: None.
description: The NATIONAL SURVEY OF ADOLESCENTS IN THE UNITED STATES,
 1995 (ICPSR 2833) consisted of two subsamples, a national probability
 household sample of 3,161 adolescents and a probability oversample of
 862 adolescents residing in central city areas of the United States,
 for a total sample of 4,023. Because the parent or guardian interviews
 were conducted prior to the adolescent interviews, the 4,023
 participants in the parent sample were also selected from a national
 probability sample of households and a probability oversample of
 central city households. To construct the initial national probability
 sample, a multistage, stratified, area probability, random-digit-
 dialing sampling procedure that had four steps was used. First, the
 United States was stratified geographically by Census region and a
 population-based subsample allocation was developed for each
 geographic stratum. In other words, the number of households drawn for
 the sample from each geographic stratum was allocated in proportion to
 the actual distribution of the population residing within each
 stratum, according to the most recent Census estimates. In the second
 step, telephone banks within each geographic stratum were
 systematically selected utilizing the comprehensive database of
 working telephone banks maintained by Schulman, Ronca, and Bucuvalas,
 Inc. (SRBI). Third, random-digit-dialing was used to sample telephone
 households within the telephone banks selected in the second
 stage. Nonworking household (e.g., business) numbers were immediately
 replaced by other numbers selected in the same fashion as the initial
 numbers. Non-answering numbers were called again four times before
 being replaced. In the fourth step, an adult respondent in each
 household was screened to determine if there were any adolescents aged
 12-17 currently living in the household or if any had lived in the
 household at least four months during the previous year. In households
 with multiple eligible adolescents, a systematic selection (i.e.,
 "most recent birthday" technique) was made to determine which eligible
 individual would be designated as the respondent. Construction of the
 central city oversample followed the same procedures except for the
 initial geographic stratification step. This step was replaced using
 the census classification of counties by types of place and specifying
 the target population as households located within these urban
 counties. Adolescents who were potentially excluded from the study
 included those residing in institutional settings, in households
 without a parent or guardian (e.g., emancipated minors, married
 adolescents living on their own) or in a house without telephones,
 those who did not speak English or Spanish, and those whose parents
did not give permission for them to be interviewed.
description: Datasets: 
DS1: Correlates and Consequences of Juvenile Exposure to Violence in the United States, 1995
description: Adolescents aged 12-17 in the United States. Smallest Geographic Unit: None.
description: The user guide, codebook, and data collection
 instrument are provided by ICPSR as separate Portable Document Format
 (PDF) files. The PDF file format was developed by Adobe Systems
 Incorporated and can be accessed using PDF reader software, such as
 the Adobe Acrobat Reader. Information on how to obtain a copy of the
Acrobat Reader is provided on the ICPSR Web site.