Aggressive behavior in response to violence exposure: is it adaptive for middle-school children?
✍ Scribed by Suzanne Salzinger; Margaret Rosario; Richard S. Feldman; Daisy S. Ng-Mak
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 2008
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 142 KB
- Volume
- 36
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0090-4392
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✦ Synopsis
Abstract
The role of aggression in adaptation to family and community violence was examined in a sample of 667 inner‐city schoolchildren studied annually over three years in middle school. Regression analyses indicated that the association between Year 1 exposure to family and community violence and Year 2 aggression was mediated by aggression occurring contemporaneously with Year 1 exposure. Cognitive justification of aggression and friends' delinquency made small independent contributions to prediction of Year 2 aggression, delinquency, and externalizing behaviors. Year 2 aggression mediated the association between Year 1 community violence victimization and Year 3 negative adaptation (internalizing problems, anxiety, and depression). Year 2 aggression also mediated the negative association between Year 1 witnessing community violence and Year 3 positive adaptation (self‐esteem). Cognitive justification of aggression and friends' delinquency made independent contributions to Year 3 negative adaptation. The pattern of relations among variables infrequently varied by gender. Implications for intervention are discussed. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.