Perceived Mattering to the Family and Physical Violence Within the Family by Adolescents

Abstract

Mattering is the extent to which people believe they make a difference in the world around them. This study hypothesizes that adolescents who believe they matter less to their families will more likely threaten or engage in intrafamily physical violence. The data come from a national sample of 2,004 adolescents. Controlling for respondents’ age, gender, race, religiosity, and family socioeconomic status, structure, and size, logistic regression reveals that mattering to family is a strong contributor to violence. The effect of mattering is mediated by self-esteem and attitude toward violence. Females are more violent than males. Compared with the average respondent, Hispanics are less likely than Whites to commit violence. Children from larger families increasingly use violence. Religiosity diminishes family violence. Children whose responding parent did not finish high school are less likely to turn to violence compared with those whose parent did postcollege study.

Multivariate Models of Child-to-Mother Violence and Child-to-Father Violence among Adolescents

“…It seems that the relationship between sex and CPV differs by the type of violence exerted. Whereas girls tend to exercise more psychological CPV (e.g., Calvete et al, 2013;Elliott, Cunningham, Colangelo, & Gelles, 2011;Ibabe & Jaureguizar, 2011), boys tend to exercise more physical CPV (e.g., Boxer et al, 2009;Nock & Kazdin, 2002;Routt & Anderson, 2011). Thus, gender is expected to be related to CPV in different ways: in girls CPV will be associated with emotional variables and in boys it will be associated with behavioural variables.…”

Family Patterns and Suicidal and Violent Behavior among Adolescent Girls—Genogram Analysis

“…These families seem capable, at least to a certain extent, of having close relationships, especially when compared to the families of the girls with suicidal behaviors. However, the style of relationships is inadequate and ineffective, which might lead to ambivalence and a tendency to reinforce aggressive patterns as the only available forms of relationships [ 49 ]. In this context, one can describe the families of the girls who use interpersonal aggression as characterized by rigidity [ 31 , 33 , 42 ].…”

Examining contextual and relational factors influencing perceptions of societal and interpersonal mattering among rural youth

“…Specifically, more positive perceptions of mattering among adolescents are predictive of better academic outcomes (Lemon & Watson, 2011;Rayle & Chung, 2007), greater purpose in life (Marshall, 2001), higher self-esteem (Rosenberg & McCullough, 1981), increased satisfaction in romantic relationships (Mak & Marshall, 2004), and better overall psychological well-being (Marshall, 2004;Marshall & Tilton-Weaver, 2019). For adolescents, mattering can also protect against suicide ideation (Elliott, Colangelo, & Gelles, 2005), externalizing problems (Schenck et al, 2009;Velez et al, 2020), and substance use and violent behavior (Elliott, 2009;Elliott, Cunningham, Colangelor, & Gelles, 2011;D. M. Lewis, 2016;Rosenberg & McCullough, 1981).…”