Beth Spenciner Rosenthal, Professor of Social Welfare, York College and The Graduate Center, is engaged in an ongoing program of psychosocial research currently supported by a 4-year grant of approximately $1 million from NIH. The research studies the psychosocial effects on older adolescents of stressful events and circumstances. One recent study focused on neighborhood and family influences on exposure to community violence during high school and the psychosocial consequences of such exposure. There is a considerable degree of exposure to community violence during the high school years; and witnessing such violence is more common than victimization. The findings were unexpected: neighborhood and family characteristics were generally not related to exposure; however, the greater the degree of exposure the greater the degree of psychological distress.
Other studies within the program have found that exposure to community violence is indirectly related to academic performance (with a small effect size) and to upper respiratory infections (with a moderate effect size). Psychological distress appears to be the mediating variable that transmits the impact of exposure to these outcomes. Another recent study of exposure to community violence and resultant psychological distress compared three different groups: Jamaican American adolescents living in NYC, Jamaicans living in Jamaica, West Indies, and non-immigrant African Americans living in NYC. Results showed that, in terms of exposure, Jamaican American adolescents are similar to African American adolescents, but the Jamaican Americans had greater levels of distress than adolescents in either of the other two groups. Future studies within the program will inquire into the joint effects of multiple adverse circumstances on psychological distress; and into psychosocial variables that moderate the impact of exposure on distress.
The research is carried out by a multi-disciplinary (e.g., psychology, sociology, social work) team of post-doctoral research associates, graduate research assistants, and undergraduate research assistants.
http://www.york.cuny.edu/sosci/bio_sketch/beth_rosenthal.html
http://web.gc.cuny.edu/socialwelfare/Facultybios/New/Beth'sBioPage.htm