A Social-Cognitive Information-Processing Model for School-Based Aggression Reduction and Prevention Programs: Issues for Research and Practice

Student aggression in schools continues to be a problem. School-based programs are a critical part of the solution. In this article we review research on the development of aggressive behavior within a social-cognitive information-processing (SCIP) framework. Huesmann (1998) presented a unified SCIP model in an attempt to integrate extant models. This model focuses on individuals\u27 (a) attention to and interpretation of situational cues; (b) search for and retrieval of scripts for behavior; (c) script evaluation based on beliefs about aggression, outcome expectancies, and self-efficacy for aggressing or inhibiting aggression; and (d) interpretation of environmental responses to their behavior. We highlight components of best practice school programs that address these steps. Limitations of the SCIP framework are discussed as directions for future research. Applied recommendations based on a unified SCIP model are offered

Long-Term Effects of Parents\u27 Education on Children\u27s Educational and Occupational Success Mediation by Family Interactions, Child Aggression, and Teenage Aspirations

We examine the prediction of individuals\u27 educational and occupational success at age 48 from contextual and personal variables assessed during their middle childhood and late adolescence. We focus particularly on the predictive role of the parents\u27 educational level during middle childhood, controlling for other indices of socioeconomic status and children\u27s IQ, and the mediating roles of negative family interactions, childhood behavior, and late adolescent aspirations. Data come from the Columbia County Longitudinal Study, which began in 1960 when all 856 third graders in a semirural county in New York State were interviewed along with their parents; participants were reinterviewed at ages 19, 30, and 48 (Eron et al., 197 1; Huesmann et al., 2002). Parents\u27 educational level when the child was 8 years old significantly predicted educational and occupational success for the child 40 years later. Structural models showed that parental educational level had no direct effects on child educational level or occupational prestige at age 48 but had significant indirect effects that were independent of the other predictor variables\u27 effects. These indirect effects were mediated through age 19 educational aspirations and age 19 educational level. These results provide strong support for the unique predictive role of parental education on adult outcomes 40 years later and underscore the developmental importance of mediators of parent education effects such as late adolescent achievement and achievement-related aspirations

Foreign Wars and Domestic Prejudice: How Media Exposure to the Israeli‐Palestinian Conflict Predicts Ethnic Stereotyping by Jewish and Arab American Adolescents

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/93529/1/jora785.pd

Childhood and Adolescent Predictors of Early and Middle Adulthood Alcohol Use and Problem Drinking: The Columbia County Longitudinal Study

Aims To examine the role of individually and contextually based factorsmeasured during childhood and adolescence in predicting alcohol use and abuse measured during early and middle adulthood. Design Initial sample of 856 individuals first interviewed at age 8 with follow-up interviews at 19 (n = 427), 30 (n = 409), and 48 (n = 523). Participants Individuals enrolled in 3rd-grade classes in Columbia County, NY, in 1960 (49% female; > 90% Caucasian; primarily working-class families), who were re-sampled in 1970 (51% female), 1981 (52% female) and 2000 (49% female). Measurements Parent reports of negative family interaction and socio-economic statuswhen the child was 8 years old; IQ test at age 8; peer nominations of aggression, popularity and behavioral inhibition at ages 8 and 19; self-report of depression and educational attainment at age 19; self-report of alcohol use and problem drinking at ages 30 and 48. Findings Path models showed that the effects of childhood individual variables (e.g. aggression, popularity, behavioral inhibition) on adulthood alcohol use and abuse generally were mediated by the same behavioral variables in adolescence. Specifically, both for males and for females, lower levels of behavioral inhibition and higher levels of aggression predicted adulthood alcohol variables. Childhood contextual variables (family socio-economic status and negative family interaction) were relatively weak predictors of adulthood alcohol use and abuse. Conclusions Alcohol use and abuse in adulthood, when considered in a long-term developmental–contextual framework, appear to be consistent with a general deviance model of problem behavior whereby individually based factors from childhood and late adolescence predict long-term indices of adulthood alcohol use and abuse.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/83441/1/2008.Dubow.Boxer.Huesmann.Childhood&Adolescent Predictors of early&middle adulthood alchohol use.pd

Theoretical and Methodological Considerations in Cross-Generational Research on Parenting and Child Aggressive Behavior

The four studies in this special issue represent important advances in research on the intergenerational transmission of aggressive behavior. In this commentary, we review the key features and findings of these studies, as well as our own cross-generational study of aggression, the Columbia County Longitudinal Study. Next, we consider important theoretical issues (e.g., defining and operationalizing “raggression” and “parenting” assessing reciprocal effects of parenting and child aggression; identifying the ages at which aggression should be assessed across generations; broadening the investigation of contextual and individual factors). We then discuss several methodological issues (e.g., determining the most informative measurement intervals for assessing prospective effects; sampling considerations; measuring potential moderating and mediating variables that might explain cross-generational continuities and discontinuities in parenting and aggression). Finally, we raise implications of cross-generational research for designing interventions targeting the reduction and prevention of child aggression.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/44591/1/10802_2004_Article_460121.pd

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

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/149258/1/ab21818.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/149258/2/ab21818_am.pd

Middle childhood and adolescent contextual and personal predictors of adult educational and occupational outcomes: A mediational model in two countries

The authors examined the prediction of occupational attainment by age 40 from contextual and personal variables assessed during childhood and adolescence in 2 participant samples: (a) the Columbia County Longitudinal Study, a study of 856 third graders in a semirural county in New York State that began in 1960, and (b) the Jyva¨skyla¨ Longitudinal Study of Personality and Social Development, a study of 369 eight-year-olds in Jyva¨skyla¨, Finland, that began in 1968. Both samples were followed up during adolescence and early and middle adulthood. Structural modeling analyses revealed that in both countries, for both genders, children’s age 8 cognitive–academic functioning and their parents’ occupational status had independent positive long-term effects on the children’s adult occupational attainment, even after other childhood and adolescent personal variables were controlled for. Further, childhood and adolescent aggressive behavior negatively affected educational status in early adulthood, which in turn predicted lower occupational status in middle adulthood.We are grateful to the Center for the Analysis of Pathways from Childhood to Adulthood, which is supported by the National Science Foundation (Grant 0322356), for research support for these analyses. The Columbia County Longitudinal Study has been supported by the Columbia County Tuberculosis and Health Association, Inc. (1960 data collection); the Hudson, New York, Lions Club (1960); the National Institute of Mental Health (1960, 1970, and 1981); and the National Institute of Child Health and Development (1999– 2002, Grant HD36056). The Jyvaskyla Longitudinal Study of Personality and Social Development has been funded by the Academy of Finland as a part of the project (Nos. 40166 and 44858) “Human Development and Its Risk Factors” (Finnish Centre of Excellence Programme, 1997–2005) and also in 1974–1975, 1979–1980, 1986–1989, and 1991–1996. Support also has been received from Finland’s Cultural Foundation, 1986–1988; the Finnish Foundation for Alcohol Studies, 1986–1987 and 1996; the National Board of Health, 1981–1982 and 1986–1987; and the University of Jyvaskyla.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/83435/1/2006.Dubow-Huesmann-Boxer-Pulkkinen-Kokko.DevPsych.PredAdultOcc.2006.pd

Exposure to Conflict and Violence across Contexts: Relations to Adjustment among Palestinian Children

Despite extensive literatures on the impact on children of exposure to violence in families, neighborhoods, and peer groups, there has been relatively little effort evaluating their cumulative impact. There also has been less attention to the effects of exposure to political conflict and violence. We collected data from a representative sample of 600 Palestinian youths (3 age cohorts: 8, 11, and 14 years old) to evaluate the relation of exposure to political conflict and violence, and violence in the family, community, and school, to posttraumatic stress (PTS) symptoms and aggressive behavior. Results highlight the additive effects of exposure to political conflict and violence, suggesting that interventionists should consider the full spectrum of sources of environmental risk for PTS symptoms and aggressive behavior.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/83446/1/2010.DubowEtAl.ExposureToConflict.JCCAP.pd

Risk factors for youth violence: Youth violence commission, International Society For Research On Aggression (ISRA)

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/144599/1/ab21766.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/144599/2/ab21766_am.pd

Children’s Postdisaster Trajectories of PTS Symptoms: Predicting Chronic Distress

BACKGROUND: There are no studies of the distinct trajectories of children’s psychological distress over the first year after a destructive natural disaster and the determinants of these trajectories. OBJECTIVE: We examined these issues using an existing dataset of children exposed to Hurricane Andrew, one of the most devastating natural disasters in US history. METHODS: At 3-months postdisaster, 568 children (55 % girls; grades 3–5) residing in areas most directly affected by the hurricane completed measures of hurricane exposure and stressors, social support, coping, and general anxiety. Children also reported major life events occurring since the hurricane (at 7-months) and posttraumatic stress (PTS) symptoms at 3-, 7-, and 10-months postdisaster. RESULTS: Latent growth mixture modeling identified three trajectories of PTS reactions: resilient (37 %), recovering (43 %), and chronic distress (20 %). Predictors of the trajectories were examined. Odds ratios indicated that, compared to the resilient trajectory, girls were more likely to be in the recovering and chronically distressed trajectories, as were children reporting higher anxiety and greater use of coping strategies that reflected poor emotion regulation. Compared to the recovering trajectory, children in the chronically distressed trajectory had greater odds of reporting high anxiety, less social support, more intervening life events, and greater use of poor emotion regulation strategies. CONCLUSIONS: Hurricane exposure may be less effective in identifying children who develop chronic postdisaster distress than other child (anxiety, coping) and contextual variables (social support, life events). Effective screening after disasters is critical for identifying youth most in need of limited clinical resources