Community Experiences Questionnaire (CEQ)

Factor: Being Valued in Community

Age: Child, Adult

Duration: 3-5 minutes

Reading Level: 6th-8th grade

What

A simplified version of the Survey of Exposure to Community Violence, the 25-item Community Experiences Questionnaire measures how often children have been exposed to violence (Schwartz & Proctor, 2000).

Who

Researchers have tested this scale with fourth- to sixth-grade students from different racial and ethnic backgrounds, including Latinx, Black, and White. One study focused on schools in Los Angeles where about 40% of neighborhood families had incomes at or below the poverty line (Schwartz & Proctor, 2000). Other research used the CEQ with third to fifth graders from an Los Angeles school where more than half of children were part of federal lunch programs and almost a quarter lived in housing projects (Schwartz & Gorman, 2003). Researchers have also used the CEQ with college students (Brady, 2006). The CEQ is at an appropriate reading level for students who learned English as a second language (Schwartz & Proctor, 2000).

How

INSTRUCTIONS

On a scale from 1 (never) to 4 (lots of times), respondents rate 25 statements to indicate how often they have been exposed to violence. The CEQ has two subscales: the 11-item Exposure Through Victimization Scale (“How many times has somebody hit, punched, or slapped you?”), and the 14-item Witnessing Violence Scale (“How many times have you seen or heard gunshots?”). Researchers calculate Exposure to Community Violence and Exposure Through Victimization scores by averaging respondents’ ratings for each subscale.

RESPONSE FORMAT

1 = never; 2 = once; 3 = a few times; 4 = lots of times.

Why It Matters

Researchers have found that children who score high on the CEQ tend to be aggressive at school. Children who have been victims to violence themselves have trouble controlling their emotions and get bullied by their classmates (Schwartz & Proctor, 2000). In a two-year longitudinal study, being a victim of violence put students at risk for rejection by their peers (Kelly, Schwartz, Gorman, & Nakamoto, 2008).

Experiencing violence may also make it hard for children to do well in school. For instance, one study found that higher scores on the CEQ were related to lower test scores and grades (Schwartz & Gorman, 2003). Education can help people achieve upward mobility (Card, 2001), and so reducing exposure to community violence could offer children a path out of poverty.

Among young adults, higher scores on the CEQ were related to taking risks, including substance use, having multiple sexual partners, and unsafe driving (e.g., speeding, running red lights, or drinking and driving; Brady, 2006).

HEADS UP

Many of the studies using the CEQ are cross-sectional or correlational, which means that it is hard for researchers to know whether poverty causes exposure to violence, exposure to violence causes poverty, or some third force causes both. And although it is plausible that reducing children’s exposure to violence could directly contribute to social mobility, no research has directly tested this hypothesis.

This questionnaire contains potentially upsetting material. Researchers should consider preparing a list of support resources that respondents can use if they become upset.

References

Brady, S. S. (2006). Lifetime community violence exposure and health risk behavior among young adults in college. Journal of Adolescent Health, 39, 610-613.

Card, D. (2001). Estimating the return to schooling: Progress on some persistent econometric problems. Econometrica, 69(5), 1127-1160.

Kelly, B. M., Schwartz, D., Gorman, A. H., & Nakamoto, J. (2008). Violent victimization in the community and children’s subsequent peer rejection: The mediating role of emotion dysregulation. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 36(2), 175–185.

Schwartz, D., & Gorman, A. H. (2003). Community violence exposure and children’s academic functioning. Journal of Educational Psychology, 95(1), 163–173.
Schwartz, D., & Proctor, L. J. (2000). Community violence exposure and children’s social adjustment in the school peer group: The mediating roles of emotion regulation and social cognition. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 68(4), 670–683.