194. Adult Perceptions of Youths' Attitudes Toward Violence and Peer Delinquency and Youth-Reported Violence Experiences

Familial adults and natural mentors play a key role in supporting youth impacted by violence. Understanding how adults’ perceptions of youth attitudes toward violence (ATV) and peer delinquency (PD) relate to youths’ actual experiences of violence may inform dyadic programming. Our goal was to examine associations between adult perceptions of youth ATV and PD and youths’ actual violence experiences among a cohort of youth-adult dyads. Youth with previous involvement in one of two community-based sexual violence prevention programs were recruited to complete an in-person, cross-sectional, egocentric social network survey. Youth surveys assessed past 30-day experiences of violence, including perpetration (e.g., getting in a physical fight; 8 items), victimization (e.g., being jumped or attacked by a group of people; 9 items), and witnessing (e.g., seeing someone carry a gun; 12 items), using validated instruments. Dichotomous responses to violence experiences were summed and operationalized as counts. Upon survey completion, youth identified one adult from their network to be recruited for participation in the study. Adults were asked to complete similar egocentric social network surveys with additional items assessing perceived youth ATV and PD behaviors for the youth who referred them to the study. Demographic characteristics for youth and adult dyads were summarized with descriptive statistics. Poisson regression examined associations between adult perceptions of youth ATV, PD and each youth’s violence outcome (perpetration, victimization, witnessing), adjusted for youths’ age, gender, and strength of the youth-adult relationship. Regression coefficients are presented as adjusted incidence rate ratios (aIRR). A total of 40 youth-adult dyadic pairs were included in the present analysis. Among 40 youth, mean age was 16.5 (SD=1.9) years. Twenty-five (62%) youth identified as female; the majority (n=35, 88%) identified as Black. Experiences of violence were common, with 31 youth (78%) reporting violence perpetration, 33 (83%) reporting violence victimization, and 39 (98%) reporting witnessing violence in the last 30 days. Youth reported a mean of 2.2 (SD=1.9), 2.9 (SD=2.3), and 4.6 (SD=2.8) types of violence perpetration, victimization, and witnessing experiences, respectively. Among 40 adults, mean age was 42.6 (SD=9.6) years. Most adults (n=33, 82%) identified as female, and 33 (82%) as Black. Alters included 24 (60%) mothers, 4 (10%) fathers, and 3 (8%) maternal grandmothers as well as school coaches/counselors (n=2, 4%) and other family members (e.g., aunt/uncle or cousin; n=5, 13%). There were no significant relationships between adult perceptions of youth ATV and youth violence experiences. However, increased adult perceptions of PD were significantly associated with higher rates of youth violence victimization (aIRR=2.04 [95%CI=1.05-3.89]) and witnessing (aIRR=1.78 [95%CI=1.07-3.02]). Among youth-adult dyads, we found significant associations between adult perceptions of PD and youth reported violence experiences. Findings suggest that adult perspectives on peer interactions and influences may be relevant for informing violence prevention efforts, particularly those which adopt a mentorship framework. Future work should consider other aspects of a youth’s dynamic social network in moderating experiences of violence.