The present study investigated the roles of perceptions of safety and parental monitoring in explaining the relation between exposure to community violence (ECV) and mental health functioning in a sample of 72 urban school children (M age = 10.2 years). The four primary goals of the study included: (1) exploring a new conceptualization of violence exposure, (2) examining safety perceptions as a mediator of the relation between ECV and internalizing (depression and PTSD) and externalizing (aggressive/conduct problems) behaviors, (3) examining parental monitoring as a moderator of the relation between ECV and mental health functioning and (4) testing parental monitoring as a moderator of the relation between ECV and safety perceptions and safety perceptions and mental health functioning (internalizing and externalizing behaviors). Results indicated that safety perceptions significantly mediated the relations between ECV and PTSD symptoms and ECV and depressive symptoms. However, parental monitoring did not serve as a significant moderator of any of the above mentioned model components. Finally, some initial support was yielded for a new measure of ECV theoretically grounded in phenomenological and stress/cognitive appraisal research
