Exposure to Violence and Physical Aggression in Early Adolescence

项目总结 青少年，特别是在贫困和犯罪率高的城市社区长大的青少年， 作为目击者和受害者，都经历了高度的暴力暴露。在此期间暴露于暴力 青春期与许多身心健康问题有关，严重 对个人和社会的后果。先前的研究已经证实，年轻人经常接触到 暴力更容易从事攻击性行为，但暴力暴露之间的因果关系 造成这种关系的根本因素尚未明确确定。这个 该项目的目标是澄清暴力暴露(目击和受害)和 青春期的攻击性行为，并找出解释这种关系的机制。这个项目 不同于以前的研究，这些研究考察了影响暴力行为轨迹的人与人之间的因素 整个生命过程中的行为和暴力暴露。它的重点是时间特定的人内因素(即， 影响个人内部(即个人内部)变化的中学每个年级内的调停者 在青春期早期。青春期早期是这种关注的一个特别突出的时期，因为有许多 增加青少年遭受暴力、受害和攻击的风险的变化。此外， 反社会行为最常见的轨迹是在青春期开始的，与社会有关 在此期间出现的过程和同行影响。建立潜在的发展 过程对于理解攻击性行为的原因和确定最佳点都是至关重要的 进行干预以转移问题行为的轨迹。该项目通过以下方式实现这些目标 对一个项目的丰富数据集进行二次分析，该项目收集了有关暴力目击措施的数据， 每3个月一次的受害、身体攻击、信仰和价值观以及犯罪同伴交往 读完了三年的中学。参与者是1795名青少年，他们来自三个公共部门的七个队列 犯罪率和暴力发生率高的城市社区的中学。他们的年龄从10岁到17岁不等 老年人(83%非裔美国人；47%男性)。每个队列每年评估四次，最长为3年 教师评分的附带数据。检查这12个浪潮的变化将使我们能够检查 在所有三年的中学期间和暑假期间的变化 好几年了。该项目的具体目标是：1)调查暴力暴露和暴力暴露之间的相互关系 初中各年级的攻击性。2)确定信仰和价值观的中介程度 青少年接触暴力对攻击行为的影响。3)确定对等点的程度 协会调解攻击对接触暴力的影响。这些目标将通过以下方式实现 最近开发的潜在曲线建模方法，提供了更直接和更精细的测试 关于人与人之间和人内变化的假设比以前更有可能。

PROJECT SUMMARY Adolescents, particularly those growing up in urban communities with high rates of poverty and crime, experience high levels of exposure to violence as both witnesses and victims. Exposure to violence during adolescence has been associated with a host of physical and mental health problems with serious consequences for individuals and society. Prior research has established that youth frequently exposed to violence are more likely to engage in aggressive behavior, but the causal relation between violence exposure and aggression, and the underlying factors that account for this relation have not been clearly established. The goal of this project is to clarify the relation between violence exposure (both witnessing and victimization) and aggressive behavior during adolescence, and to identify mechanisms that account for this relation. This project differs from prior studies that have examined between-person factors that influence trajectories of violent behavior and violence exposure across the life course. Its focus is on time-specific within-person factors (i.e., mediators) within each grade of middle school that influence within-individual (i.e., within-person) changes during early adolescence. Early adolescence is a particularly salient time for such a focus because of the many changes that increase adolescents’ risk of exposure to violence, victimization, and aggression. Furthermore, the most common trajectory of antisocial behavior has its onset during adolescence and is related to social processes and peer influences that emerge during this time. Establishing the underlying developmental process is critical both for understanding the etiology of aggressive behavior and for identifying optimal points of intervention to deflect trajectories of problem behavior. This project addresses these goals through secondary analysis of a rich data set from a project that collected data on measures of witnessing violence, victimization, physical aggression, beliefs and values, and delinquent peer associations every 3 months through all 3 years of middle school. Participants were 1,795 adolescents from seven cohorts at three public middle schools in urban communities with high rates of crime and violence. They ranged from 10 to 17 years old (83% African American; 47% male). Each cohort was assessed four times per year for up to 3 years with collateral data from teachers’ ratings. Examining changes across these 12 waves will allow us to examine changes both within and across all three years of middle school and during the summers between school years. This project’s specific aims are to: 1) Investigate reciprocal relations between violence exposure and aggression during each grade of middle school. 2) Determine the extent to which beliefs and values mediate the impact of adolescents’ exposure to violence on aggressive behavior. 3) Determine the extent to which peer associations mediate the impact of aggression on exposure to violence. These aims will be addressed using recently developed approaches to latent curve modeling that provide more direct and refined tests of hypotheses about both between-person and within-person changes than has previously been possible.