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The Psychological Effects of Chronic Violence on Children Living in South African Townships

This paper focuses on adolescent youth living in the townships of the Midlands region of KwaZulu- Natal. The subject sample has lived within violence stricken communities for most of their lives. It was assumed that all participants were also victims of poverty and social discrimination. Four different communities, with varying profiles of political and criminal violence, combined with varied access to resources were selected. A life events scale, a symptom checklist and a coping scale were used to ascertain the degree of psychological distress. The results indicated that a number of individual and community variables are likely intervening variables. This led to the development of an interactionist model, which indicates that a number of mediating and/ or moderating variables operate which enhance resilience or alternatively place an individual at greater risk for the development of psychopathology. Other probable mediating variables, not fully investigated in this study but suggested in recent literature, are discussed. These include cognitive attribution, meaning of the violence to the individual and the community as well as the nature of the enemy. The need for greater focus on factors which facilitate coping both at community and individual level are discussed.