O3241: Resilience in Real Time: Ecological Momentary Assessments Illuminate the Role of Social Networks and Trauma-Reminding Places on Black Youths’ Post-Traumatic Stress and Thriving After Violence Exposure

Background: Black youths are disproportionately exposed to community violence, which increases risk for posttraumatic stress (PTS). Social networks may mitigate or exacerbate these symptoms. Despite variability of PTS symptoms over time within a person, prior studies have not explored momentary assessments of these symptoms or the impact of contexts and social networks on PTS symptoms and feelings of security.

Methods: Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) surveys, conducted three times daily over 2-4 weeks, captured brief contextualized experiences of Black youths aged 14-19 years who had witnessed community violence within the past 90 days. EMA surveys assessed PTS symptoms (8 items), feelings of security (3 items), whether the location they were in reminded them of previous trauma (1 item), and their perceptions of safety and trouble from the social network members they were with (2 items). Multilevel models estimated relationships between overall and momentary experiences of being in trauma-reminding locations and (1) PTS symptoms and (2) feeling secure. Separate multilevel models estimated the relationship between both mean and time-varying perceptions of safety and trouble from social networks and PTS symptoms and feeling secure. To assess interactions between being in trauma-reminding locations and social network safety and trouble we ran the models with an interaction term. In all models, covariates included age, gender, and parent education.

Results: Forty-four Black youths (64% female, Mage=16.1 years) completed 1106 EMA surveys (46% response rate). Being in trauma-reminding places was negatively linked with feeling secure (RR=0.47, 95%CI: 0.36-0.63) and positively linked with PTS on mean and momentary timescales (RR=1.87, 95%CI: 1.49-2.34; RR=1.19, 95%CI: 1.11-1.26; Table 1). Feeling safe among social networks was inversely linked with PTS (RR=0.55, 95%CI: 0.43-0.72) and directly linked with feeling secure on mean and momentary timescales (RR=2.42, 95%CI:1.94-3.01; RR=1.48, 95%CI:1.36-1.62). Perceived trouble among social networks was positively linked with PTS on average and momentary timescales (RR=1.73, 95%CI:1.32-2.26; RR=1.11, 95%CI:1.04-1.18) and negatively linked with feeling secure (RR=0.47, 95%CI:0.36-0.63). In interaction models, feeling safe among social networks buffered the association between being in trauma-reminding places and PTS (p < 0.001) and potentiated feeling secure (p < 0.05; Table 2). Interactions between trauma-reminding places and perceived trouble among social networks showed opposite associations, with trouble among networks potentiating PTS (p < 0.001) and reducing feeling secure (p < 0.05).

Conclusion: Being in trauma-reminding places or feeling that social networks may increase risk of trouble can negatively affect youths who have been exposed to violence, whereas feeling safe among social networks is linked with feeling secure. Moreover, interactions between social networks and being in trauma-reminding places show that networks play a powerful role in buffering or exacerbating PTS and security. Findings indicate supportive social networks may promote thriving among Black youths exposed to community violence, suggesting the need for interventions that foster supportive connections.