ASSESSING COMMUNITY VIOLENCE - THE CHILDRENS REPORT OF EXPOSURE TO VIOLENCE

Objective: To describe the development and initial psychometric features of a brief self-report instrument for assessing exposure to community violence, the Children's Report of Exposure to Violence (CREV). Method: The CREV was administered to 228 schoolchildren between the ages of 9 and 15 years. A subset (n = 42) was retested 2 weeks later. Results: The CREV has good test-retest reliability, internal consistency, and construct validity. Analyses performed by race and gender revealed no differences in frequency of exposure to community violence as assessed by the CREV. Conclusions: This initial report suggests that the CREV has promise as a self-report questionnaire, and its construction represents a significant advance in the development of psychometrically sound instruments for use in community violence research.