Children's development is a product of parent-child interactions and the interplay between children's environments and the individuals within them. Therefore, parenting dynamics and the context in which parenting occurs should be explored when examining children's development. This study examines community violence exposure as a contextual variable for children's development. A sample of 57 parents with students enrolled in Head Start programs throughout Washington, DC completed self-report questionnaires on community violence exposure, mental health symptoms, parenting stress, and socialization practices. Parents and teachers also completed measures of children's social emotional competence. This study found that exposure to community violence has a complex relationship with parents' psychological functioning, parental socialization, and children's social emotional competence.