Abstract
A clearer understanding of the promotive factors that reduce adolescents’ involvement in aggression and the protective factors that mitigate the influence of risk factors that emerge during adolescence is needed to inform prevention efforts. This study examined the promotive and protective influences of family factors on physical aggression using data collected from aggressive and socially-influential adolescents (N = 537; 35 % female) at the beginning of sixth grade and at three subsequent waves across the following 3 years. Family characteristics (i.e., better family functioning, higher perceived parental support for nonviolence, and lower parental support for fighting) at the start of the sixth grade exerted promotive effects that reduced levels of aggression at subsequent waves. Some support was also found for protective influences. A foundation of good family functioning at the start of sixth grade buffered adolescents from the risks from delinquent peers, from the spring of sixth grade to the spring of seventh grade. Low parental support for fighting reduced risks associated with witnessing community violence, from the fall to the spring of sixth grade, but at low levels of risk only. These findings suggest that interventions targeting high-risk adolescents might benefit by enhancing both promotive and protective family factors.
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Acknowledgments
The authors are grateful to the members of the Multi-Site Violence Prevention Project for permission to use the data for this study. Project members are listed below according to their original affiliation with current affiliation in parentheses. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta GA: Thomas R. Simon, Robin M. Ikeda, Emilie Smith (Penn State University); Le’Roy E. Reese (Morehouse School of Medicine); Duke University, Durham NC: David L. Rabiner, Shari Miller (Research Triangle Institute), Donna-Marie Winn (University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill), Kenneth A. Dodge, Steven R. Asher; University of Georgia, Athens GA: Arthur M. Horne, Pamela Orpinas, Roy Martin, William H. Quinn (Clemson University); University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago IL: Patrick H. Tolan (University of Virginia), Deborah Gorman-Smith (University of Chicago), David B. Henry, Franklin N. Gay (University of Chicago), Michael Schoeny (University of Chicago), Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond VA: Albert D. Farrell, Aleta L. Meyer (Administration for Children and Families, Washington, DC); Terri N. Sullivan, Kevin W. Allison.
Author Contributions
AK conceived of and designed the current study, completed the data analysis, and drafted the manuscript. AF participated in the design and assisted with the data analysis, interpretation of the findings, and drafting of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final version of this manuscript.
Funding
This study was funded by the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC Cooperative Agreement 5U49CE000730. The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
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Kramer-Kuhn, A.M., Farrell, A.D. The Promotive and Protective Effects of Family Factors in the Context of Peer and Community Risks for Aggression. J Youth Adolescence 45, 793–811 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-016-0438-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-016-0438-x