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Somatic symptoms, peer and school stress, and family and community violence exposure among urban elementary school children

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Abstract

Somatic symptoms are a common physical response to stress and illness in childhood. This study assessed 409, primarily African American (85.6 %), urban elementary school children to examine the association between: (1) somatic symptoms and potential external stressors (school and peer stress, family conflict, and community violence) and (2) parent and child agreement on children’s self-report of somatic symptoms. The odds of self-report of somatic complaints were significantly associated with family conflict, school and peer stress, and community violence exposure (OR = 1.26, 95 % CI: 1.05–1.50; OR = 1.18, 95 % CI 1.08–1.28; and OR = 1.02, 95 % CI: 1.00–1.05, respectively). Identifying the associations between social, family, and community based stress and somatic symptoms may improve the quality of life for children living in urban environments through early identification and treatment.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to express our gratitude to the Baltimore City Public School System and students who participated in the MORE Project, as well as Robert Griffin and the MORE Project Research Team. This work was funded by support from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to the fifth author (PI: Cooley; 1 R01 DA018318) and to the third author (PI: Belcher; 1 R25 DA021630), as well as from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to the third author (PI: Belcher; U50/CCU325127).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Howard University, Washington, DC, USA

    Shayla L. Hart

  2. Children’s National Medical Center, Washington, DC, USA

    Stacy C. Hodgkinson

  3. Family Center at Kennedy Krieger Institute, 707 North Broadway, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA

    Harolyn M. E. Belcher & Corine Hyman

  4. Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Harolyn M. E. Belcher

  5. Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Harolyn M. E. Belcher & Michele Cooley-Strickland

  6. University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Michele Cooley-Strickland

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  1. Shayla L. Hart
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  2. Stacy C. Hodgkinson
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  3. Harolyn M. E. Belcher
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  4. Corine Hyman
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  5. Michele Cooley-Strickland
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Correspondence to Harolyn M. E. Belcher.

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Hart, S.L., Hodgkinson, S.C., Belcher, H.M.E. et al. Somatic symptoms, peer and school stress, and family and community violence exposure among urban elementary school children. J Behav Med 36, 454–465 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10865-012-9440-2

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