Automatic cognitions and teen dating violence.

Abstract

Objective: The present research examined whether the level of aggression in automatic cognitions was positively associated with teen dating violence after accounting for more consciously controlled, self-reported attitudes about dating violence. Method: At baseline, 95 teens who had been remanded to the juvenile court system because of antisocial behavior completed a word-completion task designed to measure the level of aggression in their automatic cognitions. Teens also completed questionnaire measures of attitudes about dating violence and dating violence perpetration during the previous three months, and then provided data on dating violence perpetration every two weeks over a 3-month follow-up period. Results: The level of aggression in automatic cognitions was positively associated with dating violence perpetration after accounting for teens' self-reported attitudes about dating violence. This pattern of results emerged with both concurrent and prospective associations. It is noteworthy that aggression in automatic cognitions also predicted changes in dating violence perpetration over the 3-month follow-up period, even after controlling for baseline levels of the perpetration of dating violence and teens' self-reported attitudes about dating violence. Conclusions: These findings suggest that theoretical models of teen dating violence should consider the role of automatic as well as more consciously controlled cognitive processes in the perpetration of teen dating violence. In addition, clinical efforts to reduce teen dating violence might benefit from targeting automatic as well as more controlled cognitive processes.

The Role of Acceptance of Violence Beliefs and Social Information Processing on Dating Violence Perpetration

“…To our knowledge, there are no studies that have tested this mediational model with dating violence. Nevertheless, the study by Jouriles, Grych, Rosenfield, McDonald, and Dodson (2011) found that, among adolescents, the level of aggression in automatic cognitions was concurrently and prospectively related to dating violence perpetration after controlling for self-reported attitudes about dating violence, which indicates that different levels of cognitive processes are important to explaining the perpetration of dating violence.…”

Youth Experiences of Family Violence and Teen Dating Violence Perpetration: Cognitive and Emotional Mediators

“…Outcome expectancies also predict dating violence perpetration in short-term longitudinal studies (Jouriles et al 2011). However, some researchers have failed to find a relation between teens' explicit beliefs about dating violence and perpetration of relationship violence (Wolfe et al 2004).…”

“…A single study to date has examined implicit knowledge structures and their relation to dating violence (Jouriles et al 2011). In a sample of teens recruited through the juvenile court system, implicit knowledge structures were assessed using a method designed to assess the accessibility of aggressive thoughts (Anderson et al 2003).…”

“…Of these, explicit beliefs have received the most research attention. In fact, our review of the literature on teen dating violence uncovered only a single study that examined implicit knowledge structures (Jouriles et al 2011), and none that examined executive function. However, the others also merit consideration in the search to understand the links between youth violence exposure and dating violence perpetration.…”

Acceptability of aggression among children who reside with substance-abusing parents: The influence of behavioral dysregulation, exposure to neighborhood violence, and interparental violence

“…In turn, exposure to neighborhood violence may positively impact children’s beliefs about the justifiability of aggression via normative associations (Fosco, Grych, & DeBoard, 2007). Violent individuals have more positive attitudes toward dating aggression and may use these beliefs to justify their violent behavior (Jouriles, Grych, Rosenfield, McDonald, & Dodson, 2011). Among child-mother dyads recruited from a domestic violence shelter who recently experienced severe IPV, children’s beliefs about the justifiability of aggression were positively associated with children’s self-reports of more externalizing problems (i.e., disruptive behavior) six months later (Jouriles, Vu, McDonald, & Rosenfield, 2014).…”