Social Cognitive and Emotional Mediators Link Violence Exposure and Parental Nurturance to Adolescent Aggression

Abstract

This study examined aggressive fantasies, violence-approving attitudes, and empathy as mediators of the effects of violence exposure and parental nurturance on aggression. A total of 603 early adolescents (M age = 11.8 years; SD = 0.8) participated in a two-wave study, reporting on violence exposure and parental nurturance at Wave 1 and the three mediators and aggression at Wave 2. Violence-approving attitudes mediated the effects of both violence exposure and low parental nurturance on aggression. Aggressive fantasies also mediated the effects of violence exposure and empathy mediated the effects of parental nurturance. The mediation pathways through which parental nurturance were linked to aggression differed across levels of violence exposure. In the context of high violence exposure, parental nurturance was related to lower aggression through higher social emotional empathy, but under low violence exposure, the effect was mediated by greater disapproval of violence.

This research was supported by grants K01DA024700 from the National Institutes of Health to the second author and R49-CCR418569 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to the third author.

Notes

Note: Gender was coded 0 for male and 1 for female. Ethnicity was coded 0 for Caucasians and 1 for African Americans and others. Family income was rated on a 13-point scale, with higher values indicating higher income. N = 603.

*p < .05 or lower.