Neighborhood poly-victimization and adolescent mental health: Community violence, sexual street harassment, and family cohesion across two waves in urban Mexico

Abstract Violence exposure profoundly disrupts adolescent development, such as in Mexico, where narco-related crime has normalized chronic insecurity. Utilizing a two-wave longitudinal design, we examined poly-victimization (community violence exposure and sexual street harassment), family cohesion, and psychological health among 346 Mexican adolescents ( M age = 13.02, SD = 0.98; 47.9% girls, 52.1% boys) in Uruapan, Mexico. Path models showed poly-victimization was associated with elevated depressive and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms cross-sectionally, but not longitudinally once baseline symptoms were controlled. Witnessing violence, but not personal victimization, remained cross-sectionally associated with both outcomes. Family cohesion did not buffer these associations; instead, cohesion exacerbated the cross-sectional link between sexual street harassment and PTSD symptoms. Girls reported higher depressive and PTSD symptoms than boys, though gender did not moderate any violence-symptom association. Findings suggest family cohesion, often assumed protective, may intensify rather than buffer the psychological toll of sexual street harassment among Mexican adolescents facing chronic violence.