EMBARGOED UNTIL MAY 5, 1998
CONTACTS:
Ann Silverman, Axel F. Bang
718/920-4011
MONTEFIORE MEDICAL CENTER STUDY SHOWS VIOLENCE FOR KIDS NOT JUST ON TV
(One in Three Children in Inner City Pediatric Clinic Has Witnessed Shooting, Stabbing and Killing)
A disturbing 79 percent of kids visiting pediatric clinics in our inner cities have witnessed violence first hand and 49 percent have been direct victims of violence, according to a recent study conducted by pediatricians at Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, NY. The study was presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies meeting in New Orleans, May 1-5, 1998.
"Our study showed that 100 percent of the children 9-12 years of age had seen TV violence and 93 percent had heard about acts of violence. While disturbing, these results were not unexpected," said Oscar H. Purugganan, M.D., a Montefiore pediatrician who presented the paper at the Societies meeting. "But, the extent and type of violence that children, especially boys, experienced first hand is a warning to pediatricians that violence is not just happening on TV, but is an active problem in many of their patients lives."
The study, titled Exposure to Violence Among Inner-City School-Age Children: Is it Only on TV? found that of the 175 children interviewed, almost a third (31 percent) had directly witnessed someone being shot, stabbed or killed. Eighteen percent had witnessed someone being killed. Seventy-seven percent of the children witnessed violent acts involving strangers and 49 percent involving familiar persons.
"Perhaps most disturbing, many of the children are exposed to repeated violence," said Dr. Purugganan. "Of the kids who had witnessed strangers being beaten, 19 percent had witnessed these acts many times. Ten percent witnessed strangers being shot or stabbed many times."
The study also found that male children were significantly more likely to be exposed to direct violence than females. Two thirds of the boys and one third of the girls experienced violence themselves. Of the 175 mother-child pairs who completed the survey, the mean age of the children was 10.8 years. Fifty-three percent were boys.
# # #
RSS