The prevalence of witnessed community violence (WCV) amongst urban populations in the USA is striking. WCV can be harmful to one's psychological health, and for mothers, the consequences may be more far-reaching as their mental health affects parenting and child development. This study used telephone interviews (n = 209) to explore the patterns and covariates of WCV amongst a sample of urban, African American mothers of infants. Mothers reported whether they had witnessed 11 different forms of violence in their current neighborhoods. A latent class analysis revealed two distinct groups of mothers, those with higher versus lower-exposure to WCV. Mothers in the higher-exposure group were more likely to be low-income, to have a high school education or less, and to have higher anxiety scores than those in the lower-exposure group. Depression was not associated with higher exposure to WCV. Distinguishing between higher- and lower-exposure samples can inform the development of targeted prevention and intervention strategies for metropolitan areas. 1. Introduction Witnessing violence is a form of exposure to community violence [1], defined as those events occurring amongst strangers or known community or family members that take place in one’s neighborhood. Witnessed violence is widely experienced by urban, minority youth [2, 3] and urban women of low socioeconomic status [4–6]. Witnessing community violence is potentially harmful to a person’s quality of life and psychological health [7–10]. For mothers, the effects of witnessing community violence may be more far reaching as their overall mental health and well-being affects their parenting and children’s development. While in general, studies show that women of color have a high prevalence of witnessed violence [4–7], it is uncertain who is at most risk and for what kinds of violence. Thus, the present study examines patterns of witnessed community violence (WCV) in a sample of African American mothers drawn from a metropolitan area. The public health significance of WCV is underscored by its prevalence as well as by its racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities. In a study of urban Latina and non-Hispanic White (NHW) women of low socioeconomic status [5], 74% of the Latina participants reported a lifetime prevalence of witnessing any violence, compared to 59% of their NHW counterparts. Witnessing lethal violence was less prevalent, but still occurred at disconcerting levels; 10% of the NHWs and 12% of the Latinas had seen a knife attack at least once in their lives, and 5% of the NHWs compared to 13% of
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