Over the past decade, an increasing number of research studies have identified the positive relationship between urban stress and the use of violence, particularly among African-American youth. Though there is a growing number of studies in this area, these studies can be criticized for their methodological shortcomings. Specifically, studies of urban stress and violence have been troubled by a descriptive approach, which often fails to adequately explain the process through which the relationship operates. That is, few have explored the role of mediating factors. Of the limited number of studies that have begun to examine mediating factors, few have considered that depression may have a mediating effect. Given the recent surge of literature which has suggested that (1) stressful life events in urban settings significantly contribute to aggression in children, (2) stressful life events are strong predictors of depression, and (3) depression may actually antecede violence in African-American youth, it seems plausible that depression may mediate the relationship between urban stress and the use of violence.

The purposes of the present study were twofold. First, it was a study that examined the relationship between urban stress and the perpetration of violence among inner city and low-income African-American youth. In addition, this study investigated whether depressive symptomology was a potential mediator of the relation between urban stress and the use of violence. To test this study's hypotheses, 367 inner-city African-American adolescents (ages 11-15, mean age 12.7 years) completed a 1.5 hour long paper-pencil survey. Specifically, the students completed the Youth Self-Report (YSR), the Behavior Checklist, the Perpetrator Scale, the Urban Adolescent Life Experiences Scale, the Screening Survey of Exposure to Community Violence (SSV) and the Family Economic Pressure Index. It was hypothesized that poverty, major negative life events, daily hassles, and exposure to violence would be positively related to the use of violence among these youth. Moreover, it was hypothesized that the number of depressive symptoms reported would mediate the relationship of stressful life events to the commitment of violent acts.

Evidence from this study provide partial support for the predicted relations between poverty, major negative life events, daily hassles, victimization, witnessing of violence, depression and violence. Mediational analyses revealed that only one of the five stressors was related to both depressive symptomology and the perpetration of violence. When depressive symptomology was controlled, daily hassles continued to significantly affect the perpetration of violence. Thus, the present study was unable to establish mediation.