Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

Territorial violence in Montevideo, Uruguay has increased in recent decades and, although concentrated in specific neighborhoods, may affect the broader urban territory and its population. Despite its growing salience, the psychological and family-level consequences of territorial violence in Montevideo remain largely unexplored. This study examines associations between perceived neighborhood violence, maternal negative affect, social support, and hostile parenting in a community sample of 301 mothers of school-aged children. Regression and mediation models controlling for sociodemographic covariates indicated that higher perceived violence was associated with greater maternal negative affect, which mediated associations with hostile parenting. In contrast to findings commonly reported in the Global North, higher perceived violence showed a direct negative association with hostile practices, suggesting a compensatory caregiving response under conditions of insecurity. Moderation analyses further indicated that social support buffered the association between perceived violence and maternal negative affect.