The acute effect of local homicides on children’s cognitive performance
Open accessAbstract
This study estimates the acute effect of exposure to a local homicide on the cognitive performance of children across a community. Data are from a sample of children age 5–17 y in the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods. The effect of local homicides on vocabulary and reading assessments is identified by exploiting exogenous variation in the relative timing of homicides and interview assessments among children in the same neighborhood but assessed at different times. Among African-Americans, the strongest results show that exposure to a homicide in the block group that occurs less than a week before the assessment reduces performance on vocabulary and reading assessments by between ∼0.5 and ∼0.66 SD, respectively. Main results are replicated using a second independent dataset from Chicago. Findings suggest the need for broader recognition of the impact that extreme acts of violence have on children across a neighborhood, regardless of whether the violence is witnessed directly.
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Violence in a neighborhood can depress measures of cognitive ability for school-aged (5-17 years old) children in that community.
“Patrick Sharkey has published several studies demonstrating that violence in a neighborhood can depress measures of cognitive ability for school-aged (5–17 years old) children in that community [22,23].”
From Genes, Heritability, ‘Race’, and Intelligence: Misapprehensions and Implications (2022) · cites this paper as [22]
Materials and Methods identifies a sample aged 5–17, and the Discussion reports that recent local homicides reduced children’s cognitive-test performance. But the reported effect was acute and found among African-American children, not Hispanic children; the claim’s broader wording about neighborhood violence and children generally omits those limits. (LLM, conf=0.86)
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Cites
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“Similarly, multiple studies have shown that exposure to violent neighborhoods is related to lower test scores and lower test score growth over time (Burdick-Will, 2013; Burdick-Will., 2016; Sharkey, 2010; Schwartz et al 2016).”
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“In this context, it is of relevance that Patrick Sharkey has published several studies demonstrating that violence in a neighborhood can depress measures of cognitive ability for school-aged (5–17 years old) children in that community [22,23].”
Background
- Authors
- Sharkey, P.
- Affiliations
- New York University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Sharkey, Patrick
- ORCID
- Sharkey, Patrick
- Venue
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- Published
- 2010-06-14
- Volume
- 107
- Issue
- 26
- Pages
- 11733-11738
- ISSN
- 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
- 1091-6490
- PMC
- PMC2900647
- OpenAlex
- W2057106363
- Cited by
- 429
- References
- 4
- Citations by year
- 2026: 18 · 2025: 29 · 2024: 26 · 2023: 30 · 2022: 47 · 2021: 30 · 2020: 25 · 2019: 38 · 2018: 31 · 2017: 38 · 2016: 33 · 2015: 28 · 2014: 22 · 2013: 9 · 2012: 18
- FWCI
- 35.01
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Ardabil University of Medical Sciences
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Crime Patterns and Interventions
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child Abuse and Trauma
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies
- Keywords
- child cognitive performance, neighborhood violence, vocabulary, reading achievement, African American children, acute stress, Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Black or African American, Chicago, Child, Child, Preschool, Cognition, Female, Homicide, Humans, Intelligence Tests, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Stress, Physiological, Stress, Psychological, Time Factors
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