Diminishing Delinquency: Social Support as a Moderator Between Exposure to Community Violence and Delinquency in Adolescents

Diminishing Delinquency: Social Support as a Moderator Between Exposure to Community Violence and Delinquency in Adolescents | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Diminishing Delinquency: Social Support as a Moderator Between Exposure to Community Violence and Delinquency in Adolescents Leonardo Dominguez Ortega, Gabriel A. León, Alexandra Sturm, Diana E. Santacrose This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8696580/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract BACKGROUND Adolescents experience community violence at concerning rates in the United States. Exposure to community violence (ECV) often portends negative outcomes, like delinquency, but social support has been found to lessen such outcomes in youth exposed to similar experiences. OBJECTIVE Expanding on the buffering hypothesis, we assessed whether social support could lessen delinquency associated with ECV. METHODS We examined the roles of family, friend, and adult social support as moderators between primary and secondary ECV (PECV, SECV) and delinquency in a large U.S.-based sample. Negative binomial regressions were used to determine the effects of ECV and social support on delinquency and to assess the impact of cross-product interactions between ECV and social support on delinquency. RESULTS ECV was positively associated with delinquency. All forms of social support were negatively associated with delinquency. Initial moderation models suggested that at higher levels of family and adult support, the positive associations between ECV and delinquency increased. Upon reinterpretation, we found that ECV moderated the effects of family and adult support on delinquency such that their protective effects were diluted as PECV and SECV increased. Conversely, ECV did not moderate the effect of friend social support on delinquency. CONCLUSIONS ECV’s moderation of the associations between family and adult social support and delinquency outlines its deleterious impact despite the presence of such supports. As ECV did not moderate the association between friend social support and delinquency, friend social support may be a viable avenue to consistently reduce the negative effects of ECV and delinquency. exposure to community violence delinquency social support adolescents Full Text Additional Declarations The authors declare no competing interests. Supplementary Files Dimin.DelinquencySupplemental.docx Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8696580","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":580279161,"identity":"e6060c30-4a09-4c93-b8ec-99fc74dca767","order_by":0,"name":"Leonardo Dominguez Ortega","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAABB0lEQVRIie3PP0vDQBjH8UcO6hJ07RGqb+EJB51C8lauHNyUwUl0u6ldil3tuwj4Bk4OzHIvIKKgUejkUHDJINRrSwb/nFkd7jvkfoF8OAIQCv3DEI719rnt4Hl3HKr9m/KSiHeEILgNke4l2O3BcEeGvJckL/XZY1ZWs1V82abZYvnG1i2ko1J7CWMFrkRptaSWS3H9UIzpHCT7g4zjAo3Amt9RxY0ARwiAmfSTp2bqyEac3lv2DrDpJRnWZOCIdiPCGED7CYmE+xfDqZUkUVLwxMpzOkfBlh6Szxa3r8WHyY+qqmlUmuUnlblZtxfZ6MpDgOyPiYIvA3/79tttP0YoFAqFuj4BkfhgC2OCkWoAAAAASUVORK5CYII=","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0009-0009-0823-5852","institution":"University of Southern California","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Leonardo","middleName":"Dominguez","lastName":"Ortega","suffix":""},{"id":580279162,"identity":"766d3abf-d5c0-4957-8d77-af244292f7be","order_by":1,"name":"Gabriel A. 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Exposure to community violence (ECV) often portends negative outcomes, like delinquency, but social support has been found to lessen such outcomes in youth exposed to similar experiences.\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eOBJECTIVE\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eExpanding on the buffering hypothesis, we assessed whether social support could lessen delinquency associated with ECV.\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eMETHODS\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eWe examined the roles of family, friend, and adult social support as moderators between primary and secondary ECV (PECV, SECV) and delinquency in a large U.S.-based sample. Negative binomial regressions were used to determine the effects of ECV and social support on delinquency and to assess the impact of cross-product interactions between ECV and social support on delinquency.\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eRESULTS\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eECV was positively associated with delinquency. All forms of social support were negatively associated with delinquency. Initial moderation models suggested that at higher levels of family and adult support, the positive associations between ECV and delinquency increased. Upon reinterpretation, we found that ECV moderated the effects of family and adult support on delinquency such that their protective effects were diluted as PECV and SECV increased. Conversely, ECV did not moderate the effect of friend social support on delinquency.\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eCONCLUSIONS\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eECV\u0026rsquo;s moderation of the associations between family and adult social support and delinquency outlines its deleterious impact despite the presence of such supports. As ECV did not moderate the association between friend social support and delinquency, friend social support may be a viable avenue to consistently reduce the negative effects of ECV and delinquency.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Diminishing Delinquency: Social Support as a Moderator Between Exposure to Community Violence and Delinquency in Adolescents","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2026-01-27 10:04:52","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8696580/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"c4796424-ca55-4d23-b6c8-34130a87a5e1","owner":[],"postedDate":"January 27th, 2026","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-01-27T10:04:53+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2026-01-27 10:04:52","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-8696580","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-8696580","identity":"rs-8696580","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"XKTyCvWXoU3ODBz1xrDgd","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}