The role of peer support, individual attitudes, and stress on aggression in urban African American adolescents

The purpose of this study was to explain the relation among self-reported aggression, perception of peer support for engagement in violent behavior, endorsement of attitudes supportive of violent behavior, and experience of instances of perceived injustice or unfair treatment on subsequent engagement in aggressive behavior. It was hypothesized that all three variables, peer support for engagement in violent behavior, experience of unfair situations, and attitude would all be positively correlated with aggression.;This study was based on a sample of non-special education, seventh grade middle school students from a large city in the Southeastern United States. Ninety-four percent of the sample was African American.;Based on the results of the descriptive statistics, significant gender differences were found. At Time 1, boys reported higher levels of aggression, as well as, more endorsement of attitudes supportive of engagement in violent behavior. At Time 2, boys continued to endorse having attitudes favorable of engagement in violent behavior more often than girls, however, the significant difference in relation to level of aggression disappeared with boys and girls reporting equal levels of aggression.;Structural Equation Modeling was utilized to assess the relations among the variables. The results indicated that there was a significant amount of stability among the variables across time with each of the Time 1 variables predicting itself at Time 2. For example, level of peer support for engagement in violent behavior at Time 2 was significantly correlated with the level of peer support that was reported at Time 1. Similarly, level of self reported aggression also demonstrated this pattern of stability across time. With reference to aggression, it was also found that having certain attitudes was significantly positively correlated with subsequent level of aggression. The hypotheses that level of peer support for engagement in violent behavior and experience of unfair situations would be positively correlated with subsequent aggression were not supported. Although level of aggression at Time 2 could not be predicted by these two variables, the variables were found to display a consistent pattern across time. In addition, the variables were all correlated with one another suggesting that although predictions were not possible, the variables appeared to change together across time.;Explanations for the lack of support for the hypotheses are discussed, including the need to complete a more comprehensive assessment to identify the variables that are most important to explaining the relation among these variables and African American students. In particular, the importance of assessing the role of family, and identifying stressors that are most relevant for African Americans (i.e. racism) are discussed. In addition, issues such as type of design utilized, longitudinal, and its effect on the outcome is also explored. Although this study did not support previous studies demonstrating the importance of peer support with reference to being able to predict aggression, it does demonstrate the stability of the variables across time and the importance of the individual with regards to determining his or her own subsequent behavior through attitude. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...