Adolescents' Appraisal of Responses to Problem Situations and Their Relation to Aggression and Nonviolent Behavior

OBJECTIVE

This study investigated adolescents' appraisals of responses to problematic situations and their relations to behavioral intentions for aggressive and nonviolent behavior. A key question was whether ratings of effective and ineffective nonviolent responses and aggressive responses reflect distinct constructs or opposite ends of a single dimension.

METHOD

A sample of 183 students at three middle schools in an urban public school system serving a mostly African American population completed measures of aggression, and rated responses to hypothetical situations on five dimensions: behavioral intention, effectiveness, descriptive norms, and anticipated reactions from friends and parents. Responses included nonviolent responses and aggressive responses to problematic situations identified in previous qualitative studies. Nonviolent responses were categorized as effective or ineffective based on ratings by a community sample of youth and adults.

RESULTS

Confirmatory factor analyses supported separate factors representing ratings of effective responses and aggressive responses for each domain. Regression analyses indicated that ratings of aggressive responses were more strongly related to aggressive intentions, and ratings of effective responses were more strongly related to intentions to use effective responses. Adolescents who varied in their level of aggression differed in their ratings of aggressive and nonviolent responses. Those reporting higher levels of aggression showed less differentiation between effective and ineffective nonviolent responses compared with those reporting lower levels.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings underscore the need for further efforts to identify factors that promote effective nonviolent behavior versus those that support aggression. They have important implications for the development of violence prevention programs.

Beliefs about Fighting and Their Relations to Urban Adolescents' Frequency of Aggression and Victimization: Evaluation of the Beliefs about Fighting Scale

This study investigated the structure and concurrent validity of the Beliefs About Fighting Scale (BAFS). Participants were 2,118 students from three urban middle schools who completed measures of their beliefs, frequency of physical aggression, victimization, and nonviolent intentions. Ratings of students' frequency of physical aggression, physical victimization, and nonviolent behavior were also obtained from their teachers. The majority of the sample was African American (81%). Confirmatory factor analyses supported a model with separate factors representing beliefs against fighting, beliefs that fighting is sometimes necessary, beliefs supporting reactive aggression, and beliefs supporting proactive aggression. Support was also found for strong measurement invariance across sex, grade, and groups that differed in whether a violence prevention program was being implemented at their school. The four BAFS factors were associated with adolescents' frequency of aggression, victimization, and nonviolent behavior. This study underscores the importance of assessing multiple aspects of beliefs associated with aggressive behavior.