L. Rowell Huesmann

Stability of aggression over time and generations.

This study was supported in part by Grant MH-34410 to Leonard D. Eron from the National Institute of Mental Health.

Children's Normative Beliefs about Aggression and Aggressive Behavior

Normative beliefs have been defined as self-regulating beliefs about the appropriateness of social behaviors. In 2 studies the authors revised their scale for assessing normative beliefs about aggression, found that it is reliable and valid for use with elementary school children, and investigated the longitudinal relation between normative beliefs about aggression and aggressive behavior in a large sample of elementary school children living in poor urban neighborhoods. Using data obtained in 2 waves of observations 1 year apart, the authors found that children tended to approve more of aggression as they grew older and that this increase appeared to be correlated with increases in aggressive behavior. More important, although individual differences in aggressive behavior predicted subsequent differences in normative beliefs in younger children, individual differences in aggressive behavior were predicted by preceding differences in normative beliefs in older children.

Longitudinal relations between children's exposure to TV violence and their aggressive and violent behavior in young adulthood: 1977-1992

Although the relation between TV-violence viewing and aggression in childhood has been clearly demonstrated, only a few studies have examined this relation from childhood to adulthood, and these studies of children growing up in the 1960s reported significant relations only for boys. The current study examines the longitudinal relations between TV-violence viewing at ages 6 to 10 and adult aggressive behavior about 15 years later for a sample growing up in the 1970s and 1980s. Follow-up archival data (N = 450) and interview data (N = 329) reveal that childhood exposure to media violence predicts young adult aggressive behavior for both males and females. Identification with aggressive TV characters and perceived realism of TV violence also predict later aggression. These relations persist even when the effects of socioeconomic status, intellectual ability, and a variety of parenting factors are controlled.

An information processing model for the development of aggression

This research was supported in part by grant MH-38683 from the National Institute of Mental Health.

The Role of Social Information Processing and Cognitive Schema in the Acquisition and Maintenance of Habitual Aggressive Behavior

Publisher Summary The major aim of this chapter is to show how the development and occurrence of human aggressive behavior are explained by the social-cognitive information processing theory, and to review the empirical evidence supporting the theory. Artificially intelligent programs like “Deep Blue” do not succeed in solving complex problems simply because they can compute very rapidly. They succeed because they also incorporate models of the way in which human experts process information to solve problems. Different theories of social behavior may use different levels of explanation within this hierarchy, but generally, most theories adopt a level analogous to programming in a high-level computer language. Information processing models of social cognition have drawn on empirical knowledge about human cognition and human social behavior to define a set of basic processes and data structures that seem to characterize human cognitions about social behavior. The chapter discusses three important facts about anger and aggressive behavior in humans before proceeding with an elaboration of the role of social cognition. It further discusses that two general cognitive/information processing models have emerged to explain how humans acquire and maintain aggressive habits.

Community violence exposure, social cognition, and aggression among urban elementary school children.

The effects of witnessing community violence on aggressive cognitions and behavior were investigated in an ethnically diverse sample of 4,458 children living in urban neighborhoods. Prior violence exposure had a significant effect in increasing aggression, normative beliefs about aggression, and aggressive fantasy. Although exposure to violence predicted aggressive behavior both in Grades 1 through 3 (ages 5-8) and Grades 4 through 6 (ages 9-12), the effects on social cognition were only evident in the later grades. Furthermore, the effect of violence exposure on aggression in the later grades was partially mediated by its effect on social cognition. These findings suggest that witnessing community violence has an effect on childrens aggressive behavior through both imitation of violence and the development of associated cognitions as children get older.

The relation of family functioning to violence among inner-city minority youths.

The relationship between family influences and participation in violent and nonviolent delinquent behavior was examined among a sample of 362 African American and Latino male adolescents living in the inner city. Participants were classified into three groups: (a) nonoffenders, (b) nonviolent offenders, and (c) violent offenders. Families in the violent delinquent group reported poorer discipline, less cohesion, and less involvement than the other two groups. These results were consistent across ethnic groups. However, the factor Beliefs About Family related to violence risk in opposite directions for African American and Latino families. These results highlight the need to look at ethnic group differences when constructing models of risk.

The Effects of Prosocial Video Games on Prosocial Behaviors: International Evidence From Correlational, Longitudinal, and Experimental Studies

Although dozens of studies have documented a relationship between violent video games and aggressive behaviors, very little attention has been paid to potential effects of prosocial games. Theoretically, games in which game characters help and support each other in nonviolent ways should increase both short-term and long-term prosocial behaviors. We report three studies conducted in three countries with three age groups to test this hypothesis. In the correlational study, Singaporean middle-school students who played more prosocial games behaved more prosocially. In the two longitudinal samples of Japanese children and adolescents, prosocial game play predicted later increases in prosocial behavior. In the experimental study, U.S. undergraduates randomly assigned to play prosocial games behaved more prosocially toward another student. These similar results across different methodologies, ages, and cultures provide robust evidence of a prosocial game content effect, and they provide support for the General Learning Model.

Stressful events and individual beliefs as correlates of economic disadvantage and aggression among urban children.

This study examined 3 factors that were hypothesized to increase risk for aggression among urban children: economic disadvantage, stressful events, and individual beliefs. Participants were 1,935 African American, Hispanic, and White elementary-school boys and girls assessed over a 2-year period. The relation between individual poverty and aggression was only significant for the White children, with significant interactions between individual and community poverty for the other 2 ethnic groups. With a linear structural model to predict aggression from the stress and beliefs variables, individual poverty predicted stress for African American children and predicted beliefs supporting aggression for Hispanic children. For all ethnic groups, both stress and beliefs contributed significantly to the synchronous prediction of aggression, and for the Hispanic children, the longitudinal predictions were also significant. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for preventive interventions in multiethnic, inner-city communities.

Long-Term Effects of Repeated Exposure to Media Violence in Childhood

About a quarter of a century ago, a young American radical, Stokely Carmichael, commented that violence was as American as apple pie! At least in terms of prevalence, nothing much seems to have changed since that time. The frequency of violence directed by one human being at another was appallingly high then and is appallingly high now. The United States is not the most violent society in the world. That distinction belongs to some of the less developed countries ravaged by wars, terrorism, drug battles, and general lawlessness. Nor is violence as endemic now as it has been during many of the last 20 centuries. Among the highly developed Western societies, however, the United States has scored at the top for the past several decades on most objective measures of interpersonal violence. For example, homicides in the United States rose from an overall rate of about 5 per 100,000 to 10 per 100,000 between World War II and the 1980s and have remained at about that level. Of course, the rate in some inner-city ghettos may be 10 times this rate (100/100,000) and the rate for certain age cohorts may be 3 times this rate (e.g., 30/100,000 for males 18 to 24). In comparison, no other highly developed Western society has a rate much above 3 per 100,000 and most are below 1 per 100,000. Rates at these levels are cause enough for concern and also reflect increases since World War II, but the sustained rates in the United States are a national tragedy. In some urban areas of the United States the most common cause of death for young males is now homicide.