Community Violence and Internalizing Mental Health Symptoms in Adolescents: Systematic Review.

Purposes: Mental health diseases (MHD) are responsible for 16% of the global burden of disease in adolescents. This review focus on one contextual factor nominated community violence (CV) that can contribute to the development of MHD. Objective: to evaluate the impact of CV on internalizing mental health symptoms (IMHS) in adolescents, to investigate whether different proximity to CV (witness x victim) is associated with different risks and to identify whether gender, age, and race moderate this association. Methods: systematic review of observational studies. Population includes adolescents (10 - 24 years), exposition involves individuals exposed to CV and outcomes consists of IMHS. Selection, extraction and quality assessment were performed independently by two research. Results: 2987 works were identified, after selection and extraction it remained 42. Higher exposure to CV were associated positively with IMHS. Being a witnessing is less harmful for mental health than being a victim. Age and race did not appear in the results as modifiers, but masculine gender and family support appear as a protective factor in some studies. Conclusion: This review confirms the positive relationship between CV and IMHS in adolescents and brings relevant information that can direct public efforts to build policies in prevention of both problems.