Community violence exposure and aggression among urban adolescents: testing a cognitive mediator model

Abstract

Past research has shown that exposure to violence leads to aggressive behavior, but few community-based studies have examined theoretical models illustrating the mediating social cognitive processes that explain this relation with youth exposed to high rates of violence. This study examines the impact of community violence on behavior through cognitive mediators: normative beliefs about aggression and self-efficacy to control aggression. Self-report surveys were completed by two samples (cross-sectional and longitudinal) of early adolescent, urban African American youth. Structural equation modeling was used to evaluate a theoretical model, and results demonstrated a good fit with both samples; that is more exposure to community violence was associated with more retaliatory beliefs supporting aggression, which led to less self-efficacy to control aggression, which led to more aggressive behavior. These findings are examined in the context of community factors, and implications for prevention and intervention are discussed. C 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Maternal Attachment Buffers the Association Between Exposure to Violence and Youth Attitudes About Aggression

“…Given that aggressive attitudes have been established as a mediator of the association between exposure to violence and perpetrating aggressive and violent behavior, both in previous studies (e.g., Guerra et al, 2003;McMahon, Felix, Halpert, & Petropoulos, 2009) and in the current study, identifying factors that can reduce the impact of violence on youths' attitudes is an important step in understanding and reducing the effects of violence. This study focused on attachment security because the working models associated with secure attachment may counteract the tendency for witnesses of aggression to view it as normative or acceptable.…”

Victimización, resiliencia y salud mental de estudiantes de universidad en Tamaulipas, México

“…Las conductas agresivas y delictivas pueden aumentar en forma continua (Gaylord-Harden, So, Bai, Henry, & Tolan, 2017), lo que se ha relacionado con creencias que justifican la violencia como forma de protección y una disminución de la autoeficacia para el control de la agresión (McMahon, Felix, Halpert, & Petropoulos, 2009). Además, se hna encontrado diferencias en la sintomatología de acuerdo con la relación que mantiene el adolescente con la víctima: mayor nivel de depresión cuando es un familiar y mayor nivel de ansiedad cuando es un amigo o conocido (Lambert, Boyd, Cammack, & Ialongo, 2012).…”

The Effect of Social Problem Solving Skills in the Relationship between Traumatic Stress and Moral Disengagement among Inner-City African American High School Students

“…In addition, several researchers have proposed that cognitive factors, such as moral disengagement, play a central role in the relationship between trauma exposure and aggressive behavior among inner-city African American youth (McMahon, Felix, Halpert, & Petropoulos, 2009). Exposure to trauma could lead to the development of a pathological adaptation to violence (Ng-Mak et al, 2002; Ng-Mak, Salzinger, Feldman & Stueve, 2004) and to deceased self-efficacy to handle social problems in an effective, non-aggressive manner (LeBlanc, Self-Brown, Shepard, & Kelly, 2011; McMahon, Todd, Martinez, Coker, Sheu, Washburn, & Shah, 2013) .…”

“…McMahon and colleagues (2009) investigated the impact of community violence exposure on aggressive behavior through two cognitive mediators: normative beliefs about aggression and self-efficacy to control aggression. This study found that exposure to community violence was significantly associated with retaliatory beliefs supporting aggression among a sample of African American youth (McMahon et al, 2009). …”

“…As predicted, problem-solving moderated the negative impact of community and school violence when controlling for violence exposure within the home and other potentially confounding demographic variables. Similarly, one longitudinal study consisting of 266 inner-city African American youth found that problem-solving skills were associated with less aggression and more pro-social behaviors among teacher reports (McMahon et al, 2009). In addition, more self-efficacy to solve problems in a non-aggressive, peaceful, manner was associated with less self-reported aggression and increased pro-social behavior via teacher reports (McMahon et al, 2009).…”