This qualitative study explored environmental factors that influence adolescents’ responses to problem situations involving peers. Interviews were conducted with 106 middle school students (97% African American) from an urban school system. Participants were asked to describe factors that would make it easier and those that would make it more difficult for adolescents to make specific responses to problem situations. Two types of responses were presented: nonviolent responses identified as effective in a previous study, and fighting responses. Qualitative analysis identified 24 themes representing family, peer, school, and neighborhood and broader social factors that were related to both nonviolent behavior and fighting. The identification of environmental influences on fighting and nonviolent responses has important implications for efforts to reduce aggression and promote effective nonviolent responses to problem situations encountered by adolescents.

This study identified classes of adolescents who differed in their patterns of reported aggression and victimization, examined the stability of these patterns, and explored factors associated with changes in patterns across time. Participants were 477 students from an urban and an adjoining county school system. The overall sample was 48% male and had an average age of 11.3 years. The urban sample was predominantly African American (80%); the county sample was primarily Caucasian (40%) and African American (38%). Self-report aggression and victimization measures completed at the beginning of sixth grade and the end of seventh grade were analyzed using latent class analyses and latent transition analyses. Support was found for four classes: nonvictimized aggressors, aggressive-victims, predominantly victimized, and well-adjusted youth. Emotion dysregulation, anxiety, and site were associated with membership in the aggressive-victim class in the expected direction, providing support for the validity of the classes. The well-adjusted class was the most stable in class membership over time; the predominantly victimized class was the least stable. In addition, nonvictimized aggressors and predominantly victimized youth were more likely than those in the well-adjusted class to transition into the aggressive-victim class. These findings suggest notable stability in aggressor/victim classes over time and emphasize the importance of developing prevention programs that target the unique needs of distinct aggressor/victim classes in adolescence.

Peer victimization is a common problem among adolescents that has been linked to a variety of adjustment problems. Youth involved in peer victimization represent a heterogeneous group who may differ not only in their levels of victimization and perpetration, but also in the factors that influence their behavior. The current study used latent class analysis (LCA) to identify subgroups of aggressive and victimized youth, and to examine social-cognitive and environmental factors that differ across these subgroups. Participants were a predominantly African-American (i.e., 68 %) sample of 502 sixth, seventh, and eighth graders (45 % male, Mean age = 12.6 years) attending three urban public middle schools, who completed self-report measures of aggression, victimization, and associated individual and contextual factors. LCA identified four classes of adolescents representing non-victimized aggressors, aggressive-victims, predominantly victimized youth, and well-adjusted youth. Class differences were found on measures of beliefs supporting fighting, beliefs against fighting, perceived effectiveness of inept nonviolent responses to conflict, behavioral intentions to engage in aggressive and nonviolent behavior, self-efficacy for nonviolent behavior, and peer and parental support for aggression and nonviolence. For example, within the two classes of victimized youth, aggressive-victims reported greater intentions to engage in physical aggression and inept nonviolent behavior, and were more likely to agree with beliefs supporting the use of instrumental and reactive aggression, and beliefs that fighting is sometimes necessary compared to predominantly victimized youth. These findings emphasize the importance of developing preventive interventions that target the specific needs of distinct subgroups of adolescents.

This qualitative study examined individual-level factors that influence adolescents' responses to problem situations involving peers. Interviews were conducted with 106 middle school students (97% African American) from an urban school system. Participants described factors that would make it easier and those that would make it more difficult for adolescents to make specific responses to problem situations. Responses included effective nonviolent responses and fighting. Qualitative analysis identified 17 individual-level themes representing personal resources, beliefs and values, perceived consequences, and appraisal of the situation. The identification of factors that influence fighting and nonviolent behavior has important implications for efforts to reduce aggression and promote effective nonviolent responses to problem situations.

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This article reviews the literature on school-based universal violence prevention programs to illustrate key methodological challenges for investigating subgroup differences in prevention effects. The variety of potential moderating factors examined within this literature is discussed within the context of a social-ecological model. Our review of this literature identified the following methodological issues: the need for a clear a priori theoretical basis for selecting potential moderators, inflated Type I error rates that result from large numbers of comparisons, the absence of explicit tests of moderation, interpretive issues arising from a restricted range on moderator variables, the failure to report effect size estimates, the presence of potential confounding factors, and the importance of examining factors that might operate at multiple ecological levels. These points are illustrated using examples of studies, primarily within youth violence prevention research, that have identified factors within the individual, school, and community that moderate the outcomes of preventive interventions. We conclude with general recommendations for future work. These include the benefits of using the social-ecological model to provide a basis for moving from exploratory to more theory-driven confirmatory models of subgroup differences, the potential merits of qualitative research designed to identify factors that may influence the effectiveness of intervention efforts for specific subgroups of individuals, and the provision of effect size estimates and confidence intervals for effect sizes in prevention reports.

This study examined adolescents' patterns of beliefs about aggression, and how these patterns relate to aggressive and prosocial behavior, and to risk factors associated with aggression. A sample of 477 sixth graders from two urban schools and a school in a nearby county completed measures of beliefs, behavior, and individual, peer and parental factors associated with aggression. Teacher ratings of participants' behavior and emotion regulation were also obtained. The urban sample was 84% African American; the county school was in a rural fringe area with a student population that was 45% Caucasian and 40% African American. Latent class analysis of items on a beliefs measure supported hypotheses predicting three groups: (a) a Beliefs Against Fighting (BAGF) group that opposed the use of aggression (31% of the sample); (b) a Fighting is Sometimes Necessary (FSNEC) group that endorsed beliefs that fighting is sometimes necessary or inevitable (41%), and (c) a Beliefs Supporting Fighting (BSUPF) group that supported aggression across multiple contexts (28%). Differences across groups were found on race/ethnicity and family structure, but not on gender. Significant differences were also found such that the FSNEC group fell between levels of the BAGF and BSUPF groups on most measures. In contrast, the FSNEC and BAGF groups both differed from the BSUPF group, but not from each other on measures of empathy, perceived effectiveness of nonviolence and aggression, and parental messages supporting nonviolence. These differences suggest the need for tailoring prevention approaches for subgroups of adolescents who differ in their patterns of beliefs.

We discuss how the five core competencies for healthy adjustment in adolescence (a positive sense of self, self-control, decision-making skills, a moral system of belief, and prosocial connectedness) are represented in theories of aggression and youth violence. We then discuss research supporting the relation between these core competencies and aggressive and violent behavior in childhood and adolescence. Finally, we address the degree to which these core competencies have been included and systematically evaluated within school-based prevention programs, and we end with suggestions for future directions.