Are experiences of family and of organized violence predictors of aggression and violent behavior? A study with unaccompanied refugee minors

Figures & data

Table 1 Descriptive statistics of the sample

		(n) %	M (SD); Range
Age in years		–	17.37 (1.35); 13–21
Country of origin	Afghanistan	(18) 36.7	–
	Iraq	(5) 10.2	–
	Nigeria	(5) 10.2	–
	Somalia	(3) 6.1	–
	Gambia	(3) 6.1	–
	Iran	(2) 4.1	–
	Syria	(2) 4.1	–
	Sierra Leone	(2) 4.1	–
	Other	(9) 18.7	–
Months lived in Germany		–	15.57 (20.63); 1–132
Years in school		–	5.46 (3.58); 0–14.7
Parents alive?	Both parents alive	(11) 22.4	–
	One parent dead/missing	(18) 36.8	–
	Both parents dead/missing	(20) 40.8	–
Living situation	Youth care centers	(21) 42.9	–
	Reception centers for URM	(13) 26.5	–
	Centers for asylum seekers	(8) 16.3	–
	Foster families	(5) 10.2	–
	Lived alone	(2) 4.1	–
Residence status	Applied for asylum	(30) 61.2	–
	Not yet applied for asylum	(13) 26.6	–
	Suspension of deportation	(3) 6.1	–
	Residence permit	(3) 6.1	–
Family violence		–	9.04 (7.14); 0–27
Organized violence		–	5.93 (5.58); 0–23
Self-committed violent acts		–	4.39 (4.23); 0–16
Appetitive aggression		–	10.1 (11.02); 0–38
PTSD symptom severity		–	19.31 (17.18); 0–57

M=mean, SD=standard deviation.

Table 2 Percentages of different committed aggressive acts

Self-committed acts	(n) %
Hit back when being attacked	(33) 67.3
Defend oneself in a fight	(32) 65.3
Physically attacked another person	(21) 42.9
Threatened or bullied someone	(18) 36.7
Imagined in how it would be to torture another person	(15) 30.6
Made another person bleed	(14) 28.6
Talked with others about experiences of harming others	(13) 26.5
Destroyed something of another person to tease him/her	(11) 22.4
Injured another person with a weapon	(10) 20.4
Taken things from others against their will	(10) 20.4
Made another person scream out of pain	(9) 18.4
Instructed others to harm another person	(9) 18.4
Had the wish to once be involved actively in a fight	(9) 18.4
Chased another person that you wanted to harm	(8) 16.3
Injured another person dangerously or killed another person	(6) 12.2
Used physical force to get others to do what you want	(5) 10.2
Harmed another person that could not defend him/herself	(5) 10.2
Sexually assaulted another person	(1) 2.0

Table 3 Sequential regression analysis predicting self-committed aggressive acts

	Self-committed aggressive acts
	B	SE	ß	T	R ^2
Step 1
Appetitive aggression	0.31	0.03	0.81	9.54***	0.66
Step 2
Appetitive aggression	0.28	0.03	0.72	8.25***	0.71
Family violence	0.14	0.05	0.24	2.81**
Step 3
Appetitive aggression	0.28	0.03	0.73	8.47***	0.73
Family violence	0.14	0.05	0.24	2.82**
Organized violence	−0.69	0.06	−0.09	−1.13
Family violence×organized violence	−0.64	0.41	−0.13	−1.54

B=unstandardized regression weight; SE=standard error; ß=standardized regression weight; T=t-test statistics, **p<0.001; **p<0.01.

Fig. 1 (a) Correlation coefficients between all variables were calculated. Only significant correlations are pictured (n.s.=not significant; r=Pearson's correlation coefficient; r _(OV)=r (controlled for organized violence)=partial correlation coefficient; *p<0.05; **p<0.001; ***p<0.001). (b) A 3D-scattergram, showing that the number of committed violent acts increases with the amount of family violence experienced. It further demonstrates that appetitive aggression also increases. The magnitude of the appetitive aggression score is indicated by the size of the bubbles.