Within-Person Bidirectional Associations Over Time Between Parenting and Youths' Callousness.

OBJECTIVE: Callousness has been identified as a key driver of aggressive and violent behavior from childhood into early adulthood. Although previous research has underscored the importance of the parenting environment in contributing to the development of youth callousness, findings have generally been confined to the between-individual level and have not examined bidirectionality. In the current study, we test whether aspects of parenting are associated with callousness from childhood to adolescence both between and within individuals, examine the temporal ordering of associations, and test whether these relations are moderated by gender or developmental stage. METHOD: Data came from a longitudinal study in which parents of 1,421 youth (52% girls; 62% White and 22% Black) from the second, fourth, and ninth grades were interviewed three times, with one year between consecutive interviews. RESULTS: A random-intercept cross-lagged panel model indicated that elevated youth callousness predicts subsequent increases in parental rejection and decreases in consistency of discipline. Findings were largely similar for boys and girls, but within-individual associations were generally stronger for 4th graders compared to the 2nd and 9th graders. CONCLUSIONS: Callousness and parenting practices and attitudes were related both at the between-individual and within-individual level. These results have implications for the etiology and treatment of children and adolescents who exhibit callousness.

Exposure to violence predicts callous-unemotional traits and aggression in adolescence in the context of persistent ethnic-political conflict and violence.

According to social-cognitive ecological theory, violence exposure increases emotional factors-such as callous-unemotional (CU) traits-which then contribute to engagement in aggressive behavior. However, previous research has generally not tested this mediational pathway, particularly in the context of persistent ethnic-political violence exposure. The present study examined associations among violence exposure, CU traits, and aggression in a sample of 1051 youth in the Middle East (Palestine and Israel), using youth- and parent-reported data in a cohort-sequential design with three age cohorts (starting ages 8, 11, and 14 years) assessed over four waves spanning 6 years. Results from structural equation models with latent variables indicated that cumulative violence exposure in childhood and adolescence (measured annually for 3 years, and comprising exposure across multiple settings including political, community, family, and school) predicted later CU traits and aggression in adolescence and early adulthood, even after controlling for earlier levels of aggression and CU traits and demographic characteristics (child age and sex and parental socioeconomic status). Additionally, in mediation analyses, CU significantly mediated the association from earlier cumulative violence exposure to concurrent aggression, while aggression did not significantly mediate the association from earlier exposure to concurrent CU traits. The results of this study suggest that violence exposure leads to both aggressive behavior and a constellation of traits that place youth at greater risk for subsequent aggressive behavior, and that CU traits could partially explain the increased risk of aggression after violence exposure.

Developmental Changes in the Relation between Youth Disclosure and Parenting Behavior: A Cohort-sequential Analysis.

To address a gap in the literature regarding the development of youth disclosure across the transition to adolescence, the current research uses a cohort-sequential approach to study youth disclosure from middle childhood through adolescence. Longitudinal data from three cohorts of parents were utilized (N = 1359; children at T1 were in grades 2 [M = 8.00 years, SD = 0.57 years, 45% female], 4 [M = 10.12 years, SD = 0.60 years, 45% female], and 9 [M = 15.19 years, SD = 0.57 years, 48% female]). Parents were assessed annually over a 3-year time period. The focal analyses explored contemporaneous associations between characteristics of the parent-youth relationship (specifically, parental rejection and parental consistent discipline) and youth disclosure after accounting for person-specific trajectories of disclosure. Associations of gender, age, and socioeconomic status with disclosure were also assessed. Regarding trajectories of youth disclosure, results indicate that youth disclose less information to their parents about their daily lives as they get older; this trend was consistent across gender and socioeconomic status. In terms of associations with youth disclosure, when parents provided more consistent discipline or engaged in less rejection of their child, youth disclosure increased, even after accounting for their own trajectory of disclosure across time. In addition, the association of consistent discipline with youth disclosure became stronger with increased youth age. Results are discussed in terms of implications for understanding youth autonomy development, and the dyadic and developmental impact of parenting behaviors over time.

Longitudinal predictions of young adults' weapons use and criminal behavior from their childhood exposure to violence.

In this study, we examine whether youth who are exposed to more weapons violence are subsequently more likely to behave violently with weapons. We use data collected with a 3-cohort, 4-wave, 10-year longitudinal study of 426 high-risk youth from Flint, Michigan, who were second, fourth, or ninth-graders in 2006-2007. The data were obtained from individual interviews with the youth, their parents, and their teachers, from archival school and criminal justice records, and from geo-coded criminal offense data. These data show that early exposure to weapons violence significantly correlates at modest levels with weapon carrying, weapon use or threats-to-use, arrests for weapons use, and criminally violent acts 10 years later. Multiple regression analyses, controlling for children's initial aggressiveness, intellectual achievement, and parents' income, education, and aggression, reveal statistically significant independent 10-year effects: (1) more early exposure to weapon use within the family predicts more using or threatening to use a gun; (2) more cumulative early violent video game playing predicts more gun using or threatening to use weapons, and normative beliefs that gun use is acceptable; (3) more cumulative early exposure to neighborhood gun violence predicts more arrests for a weapons crime; and (4) more cumulative early exposure to movie violence predicts more weapon carrying. We argue that youth who observe violence with weapons, whether in the family, among peers, or through the media or video games, are likely to be infected from exposure with a social-cognitive-emotional disease that increases their own risk of behaving violently with weapons later in life.

Addressing the inappropriate use of force by police in the United States and beyond: A behavioral and social science perspective.

Recent high-profile incidents involving the deadly application of force in the United States sparked worldwide protests and renewed scrutiny of police practices as well as scrutiny of relations between police officers and minoritized communities. In this report, we consider the inappropriate use of force by police from the perspective of behavioral and social science inquiry related to aggression, violence, and intergroup relations. We examine the inappropriate use of force by police in the context of research on modern policing as well as critical race theory and offer five recommendations suggested by contemporary theory and research. Our recommendations are aimed at policymakers, law enforcement administrators, and scholars and are as follows: (1) Implement public policies that can reduce inappropriate use of force directly and through the reduction of broader burdens on the routine activities of police officers. (2) For officers frequently engaged in use-of-force incidents, ensure that best practice, evidence-based treatments are available and required. (3) Improve and increase the quality and delivery of noncoercive conflict resolution training for all officers, along with police administrative policies and supervision that support alternatives to the use of force, both while scaling back the militarization of police departments. (4) Continue the development and evaluation of multicomponent interventions for police departments, but ensure they incorporate evidence-based, field-tested components. (5) Expand research in the behavioral and social sciences aimed at understanding and managing use-of-force by police and reducing its disproportionate impact on minoritized communities, and expand funding for these lines of inquiry.

Serious violent behavior and antisocial outcomes as consequences of exposure to ethnic-political conflict and violence among Israeli and Palestinian youth.

We examine whether cumulative-past and concurrent exposure to ethnic-political violence among Israeli and Palestinian youth predict serious violent behavior and antisocial outcomes toward the in-group and the out-group. We collected four waves of data from 162 Israeli Jewish and 400 Palestinian youths (three age cohorts: 8, 11, and 14 years old) and their parents. The first three waves were consecutive annual assessments, and the fourth was conducted 4 years after the third wave, when the three age cohorts were 14, 17, and 20 years old, respectively. Based on social-cognitive-ecological models of the development of aggression (Dubow et al., 2009, Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 12, 113-126; Huesmann, 1998) and models of the development of beliefs about the "other," (Bar-Tal, 2004, European Journal of Social Psychology, 34, 677-701; Tajfel & Turner, 1986), we predicted that serious violent outcomes directed toward both the in-group and the out-group would be related to both concurrent and to persistent-past exposure to ethnic political violence. Bivariate regression models (prior to including covariates) indicated that both early cumulative exposure to ethnic-political violence during childhood and adolescence and concurrent exposure during late adolescence/early adulthood predicted all six serious violent and antisocial outcomes. When we added to the models the covariates of ethnic subgroup, age, sex, parents' education, and youths' prior physical aggression, concurrent exposure to ethnic-political violence was still significantly associated with a greater likelihood of concurrently perpetrating all six serious violent and nonviolent forms of antisocial behavior, and earlier cumulative exposure remained significantly related to three of these: severe physical aggression, participating in violent demonstrations, and our overall index of violent/antisocial behavior.

Anxiety, Depression, and Offending in the Columbia County Longitudinal Study: A Prospective Analysis from Late Adolescence to Middle Adulthood.

PURPOSE: We use data from a community sample, the Columbia County Longitudinal Study, which followed participants from childhood through adulthood, to examine the longitudinal relations between mental health (serious anxiety and serious depression) and offending across three waves of data collection (ages 19, 30, and 48). METHOD: Participants were from the Columbia County Longitudinal Study (436 males and 420 females). The youth, their parents, and peers were first interviewed when the youth were age 8; the youth were later interviewed at ages 19, 30, and 48. RESULTS: We found significant longitudinal relations from offending to experiencing subsequent severe anxiety and weaker longitudinal relations from experiencing severe anxiety to subsequent offending. For the relation between offending and severe depression, we found similar but somewhat weaker longitudinal associations. Cross-lagged longitudinal structural modelling analyses controlling for the continuity of offending, anxiety, and depression and for family socio-economic status and education were conducted to test the plausibility of alternative causal effects. CONCLUSIONS: The analyses suggest that it is more plausible to conclude that offending is stimulating serious anxiety and depression than to conclude that anxiety and depression are stimulating offending. These results mirror what has been found previously about general aggressive behaviour.

How do Adolescents Learn Cyber-victimization Coping Skills? An Examination of Parent and Peer Coping Socialization.

Recently, cyber-victimization has become an ever increasing concern for adolescents. Given the negative consequences of cyber-victimization, it is important to understand how adolescents learn strategies to cope (i.e., "coping socialization") with cyber-victimization. The purpose of this study is to understand common coping strategies reported by adolescents, identify from whom youth learn cyber-victimization coping strategies (coaching), and explore how coaching is associated with adolescents' self-reported use of coping. In a sample of 329 adolescents (49% male; 70% white), we found that positive coping strategies (e.g., problem solving, seeking social support) are used most frequently, and adolescents' perceptions of both parent and peer coping socialization is associated with self-reported use of coping. Interventionists can use this information to adapt interventions to include influential positive socializers.

Conducting longitudinal, process-oriented research with conflict-affected youth: Solving the inevitable challenges.

The reader might get the impression that the four projects described in this Special Section proceeded in a systematic and predictable way. Of course, those of us engaged in each research project encountered pitfalls and challenges along the way. A main goal of this Special Section is to provide pathways and encouragement for those who may be interested in advancing high-quality research on this topic. In this paper, we describe a set of practical and ethical challenges that we encountered in conducting our longitudinal, process-oriented, and translational research with conflict-affected youth, and we illustrate how problems can be solved with the goal of maintaining the internal and external validity of the research designs. We are hopeful that by describing the challenges of our work, and how we overcame them, which are seldom treated in this or any other literature on research on child development in high-risk contexts, we can offer a realistic and encouraging picture of conducting methodologically sound research in conflict-affected contexts.

Children's exposure to violent political conflict stimulates aggression at peers by increasing emotional distress, aggressive script rehearsal, and normative beliefs favoring aggression.

We examine the hypothesis that children's exposure to ethnic-political conflict and violence over the course of a year stimulates their increased aggression toward their own in-group peers in subsequent years. In addition, we examine what social cognitive and emotional processes mediate these effects and how these effects are moderated by gender, age, and ethnic group. To accomplish these aims, we collected three waves of data from 901 Israeli and 600 Palestinian youths (three age cohorts: 8, 11, and 14 years old) and their parents at 1-year intervals. Exposure to ethnic-political violence was correlated with aggression at in-group peers among all age cohorts. Using a cross-lagged structural equation model from Year 1 to Year 3, we found that the relation between exposure and aggression is more plausibly due to exposure to ethnic-political violence stimulating later aggression at peers than vice versa, and this effect was not moderated significantly by gender, age cohort, or ethnic group. Using three-wave structural equation models, we then showed that this effect was significantly mediated by changes in normative beliefs about aggression, aggressive script rehearsal, and emotional distress produced by the exposure. Again the best fitting model did not allow for moderation by gender, age cohort, or ethnic group. The findings are consistent with recent theorizing that exposure to violence leads to changes both in emotional processes promoting aggression and in the acquisition through observational learning of social cognitions promoting aggression.

Religious Coping with Sexual Stigma in Young Adults with Same-Sex Attractions.

The present study assessed religious coping with sexual stigma in 260 young adults with same-sex attractions. Although the majority of the sample rarely utilized religious coping, a significant minority of participants frequently turned to religion to deal with sexual stigma. Controlling for demographic and general religious variables, positive religious coping (e.g., connecting with God) was associated with beneficial outcomes, and negative religious coping (e.g., frustrations with one's spiritual community) related to poorer adjustment to sexual stigma. Data are presented on how religious coping varied as a function of religiosity and sexual identity development (e.g., disclosure of sexual orientation to others).

Growing Up Amid Ethno-Political Conflict: Aggression and Emotional Desensitization Promote Hostility to Ethnic Outgroups.

Ethno-political violence impacts thousands of youth and is associated with numerous negative outcomes. Yet little research examines adaptation to ethno-political violence over time or across multiple outcomes simultaneously. This study examines longitudinal patterns of aggressive behavior and emotional distress as they co-occur among Palestinian (n = 600) youth exposed to ethno-political violence over 3 years in three age cohorts (starting ages: 8, 11, and 14). Findings indicate distinct profiles of aggressive behavior and emotional distress, and unique joint patterns. Furthermore, youth among key joint profiles (e.g., high aggression-emotional desensitization) are more likely to endorse normative beliefs about aggression toward ethnic outgroups. This study offers a dynamic perspective on emotional and behavioral adaptation to ethno-political violence and the implications of those processes.

Childhood and Adolescent Risk and Protective Factors for Violence in Adulthood.

PURPOSE: We use data from a community sample followed from ages 8 to 48. We focus on the main and risk-buffering effects of childhood and adolescent protective factors for predicting adulthood violence (official records and self reports). METHOD: Males (N=436) from the Columbia County Longitudinal Study participated. The youth, their parents, and peers were first interviewed when the youth were age 8; the youth were later interviewed at ages 19, 30, and 48. RESULTS: Risk factors for adulthood violence included higher aggression and lower family socioeconomic status at ages 8 and 19. Protective factors included anxiety about behaving aggressively (ages 8 and 19), popularity (ages 8 and 19), family church attendance (age 8), lower negative family interactions (age 8), and higher educational aspirations (age 19). For youth with at least one risk factor, the sum of adolescent-but not childhood--protective factors reduced the likelihood of adulthood violence. The most critical adolescent risk-buffering protective factors were anxiety about behaving aggressively and educational aspirations. CONCLUSIONS: Aggression and low family SES, even by age 8, place youth at risk for adulthood violence. Interventions to strengthen critical protective factors must continue into late adolescence to reduce the likelihood of adulthood violence among at-risk youth.

Country, sex, and parent occupational status: moderators of the continuity of aggression from childhood to adulthood.

Using data from two American and one Finnish long-term longitudinal studies, we examined continuity of general aggression from age 8 to physical aggression in early adulthood (age 21-30) and whether continuity of aggression differed by country, sex, and parent occupational status. In all samples, childhood aggression was assessed via peer nominations and early adulthood aggression via self-reports. Multi-group structural equation models revealed significant continuity in aggression in the American samples but not in the Finnish sample. These relations did not differ by sex but did differ by parent occupational status: whereas there was no significant continuity among American children from professional family-of-origin backgrounds, there was significant continuity among American children from non-professional backgrounds.

Childhood predictors and age 48 outcomes of self-reports and official records of offending.

BACKGROUND: The key question is: are self-reports and official records equally valid indicators of criminal offending? AIMS: We examine the correspondence between self-reports and official records of offending, the similarity of childhood and adolescent individual and contextual predictors of both measures of offending, and the similarity of age 48 correlates of both measures of offending. METHODS: Men (N=436) from the Columbia County Longitudinal Study, a sample of all 3rd graders in Columbia County, New York, in 1959-60, participated. The youth, their peers and their parents were interviewed when the youth were age 8; the youth were later interviewed at ages 19, 30 and 48. RESULTS: We found moderate to high correspondence between self-reports of having been in trouble with the law and official arrest records. Lifetime self-reports and official records of offending were generally predicted by the same childhood and adolescent variables, and were correlated with many of the same adult outcome measures. By age 48, life-course non-offenders defined by either self-reports or official records had better outcomes than offenders. CONCLUSIONS: The results validate the use of adolescent and adult self-reports of offending, and the early identification of individuals at risk for adult criminal behaviour through childhood parent and peer reports and adolescent self and peer reports.

The Effects of Mediated Exposure to Ethnic-Political Violence on Middle East Youth's Subsequent Post-Traumatic Stress Symptoms and Aggressive Behavior.

This study introduces the concept of chronic (i.e., repeated and cumulative) mediated exposure to political violence and investigates its effects on aggressive behavior and post-traumatic stress (PTS) symptoms in young viewers. Embracing the risk-matrix approach, these effects are studied alongside other childhood risk factors that influence maladjustment. A longitudinal study was conducted on a sample of youth who experience the Israeli-Palestinian conflict firsthand (N = 1,207). As hypothesized, higher levels of chronic mediated exposure were longitudinally related to higher levels of PTS symptoms and aggression at peers independently of exposure to violence in other contexts. In the case of aggressive behavior, structural equation analysis (SEM) analyses suggest that, while it is likely there are causal effects in both directions, the bigger effect is probably for exposure to violence stimulating aggression than for aggression stimulating exposure to violence. Both the longitudinal effects on aggression and PTS symptoms were especially strong among youth who demonstrated initially higher levels of the same type of maladjustment. These results support the conceptualization of the relation between media violence and behaviors as "reciprocally determined" or "downward spirals" and highlight the contribution of the risk-matrix approach to the analysis of childhood maladjustment.

Exposure to violence across the social ecosystem and the development of aggression: a test of ecological theory in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Bronfenbrenner's (1979) ecological model proposes that events in higher order social ecosystems should influence human development through their impact on events in lower order social ecosystems. This proposition was tested with respect to ecological violence and the development of children's aggression via analyses of 3 waves of data (1 wave yearly for 3 years) from 3 age cohorts (starting ages: 8, 11, and 14) representing three populations in the Middle East: Palestinians (N = 600), Israeli Jews (N = 451), and Israeli Arabs (N = 450). Results supported a hypothesized model in which ethnopolitical violence increases community, family, and school violence and children's aggression. Findings are discussed with respect to ecological and observational learning perspectives on the development of aggressive behavior.

Consequences of Exposure to War Violence: Discriminating Those with Heightened Risk for Aggression from Those with Heightened Risk for Post-Traumatic Stress Symptoms.

Chronic exposure to ethnic-political and war violence has deleterious effects throughout childhood. Some youths exposed to war violence are more likely to act aggressively afterwards, and some are more likely to experience post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTS symptoms). However, the concordance of these two outcomes is not strong, and it is unclear what discriminates between those who are at more risk for one or the other. Drawing on prior research on desensitization and arousal and on recent social-cognitive theorizing about how high anxious arousal to violence can inhibit aggression, we hypothesized that those who characteristically experience higher anxious arousal when exposed to violence should display a lower increase in aggression after exposure to war violence but the same or a higher increase in PTS symptoms compared to those low in anxious arousal. To test this hypothesis, we analyzed data from our 4-wave longitudinal interview study of 1051 Israeli and Palestinian youths (ages at Wave 1 ranged from 8 to 14, and at Wave 4 from 15-22). We used the 4 waves of data on aggression, PTS symptoms, and exposure to war violence, along with additional data collected during Wave 4 on the anxious arousal participants experienced while watching a very violent film unrelated to war violence (N = 337). Longitudinal analyses revealed that exposure to war violence significantly increased both the risk of subsequent aggression and PTS symptoms. However, anxious arousal in response to seeing the unrelated violent film (measured from skin conductance and self-reports of anxiety) moderated the relation between exposure to war violence and subsequent psychological and behavioral outcomes. Those who experienced greater anxious arousal while watching the violent film showed a weaker positive relation between amount of exposure to war violence and aggression toward their peers but a stronger positive relation between amount of exposure to war violence and PTS symptoms.

Exposure to political conflict and violence and posttraumatic stress in Middle East youth: protective factors.

We examine the role of family- and individual-level protective factors in the relation between exposure to ethnic-political conflict and violence and posttraumatic stress among Israeli and Palestinian youth. Specifically, we examine whether parental mental health (lack of depression), positive parenting, children's self-esteem, and academic achievement moderate the relation between exposure to ethnic-political conflict/violence and subsequent posttraumatic stress (PTS) symptoms. We collected three waves of data from 901 Israeli and 600 Palestinian youths (three age cohorts: 8, 11, and 14 years old; approximately half of each gender) and their parents at 1-year intervals. Greater cumulative exposure to ethnic-political conflict/violence across the first 2 waves of the study predicted higher subsequent PTS symptoms even when we controlled for the child's initial level of PTS symptoms. This relation was significantly moderated by a youth's self-esteem and by the positive parenting received by the youth. In particular, the longitudinal relation between exposure to violence and subsequent PTS symptoms was significant for low self-esteem youth and for youth receiving little positive parenting but was non-significant for children with high levels of these protective resources. Our findings show that youth most vulnerable to PTS symptoms as a result of exposure to ethnic-political violence are those with lower levels of self-esteem and who experience low levels of positive parenting. Interventions for war-exposed youth should test whether boosting self-esteem and positive parenting might reduce subsequent levels of PTS symptoms.