Psychology of Violence

Objective: Cyberbullying perpetration has emerged as a serious interpersonal issue in contemporary society. Given the inconsistent findings in prior research on the association between school climate and cyberbullying perpetration, this study aims to clarify this relationship through a meta-analytic approach and to explore the moderating effects of gender and culture. Method: A comprehensive literature review produced a sample of 62 effect sizes (N = 86,433) that include quantitative measurements of both school climate and cyberbullying perpetration. Results: A random-effects model indicated a moderate, yet significant negative relation between school climate and cyberbullying perpetration (r = −0.18, p < .001), consistent with prior studies and suggesting that improving school climate may contribute to reducing cyberbullying perpetration. Moderating analyses revealed that this association was stronger for students from individualistic cultures (r = −0.21, 95% CI [−0.27, −0.16]) than for those from collectivist cultures (r = −0.12, 95% CI [−0.19, −0.05]), possibly reflecting cultural differences in attitudes toward authority and peer relationships. However, this relation was not moderated by gender, F(1, 60) = 1.44, p = .236, likely due to the universal accessibility of cyberbullying perpetration and the broad impact of school climate on all students. Conclusions: The findings suggest that fostering a positive school climate could serve as an effective strategy for reducing cyberbullying perpetration. Future research should explore the distinct effects of various school climate dimensions, employ longitudinal and experimental designs to establish causality, and consider studies in other languages to broaden the cultural scope of the findings.

Objective: Interpersonal violence is a major public health issue, particularly in low-resource contexts like South Africa, where it is pervasive. Understanding the contextual risk for intergenerational transmission of violence (ITV) is vital for a nuanced approach to prevention and intervention. This study sought to understand the risks that drive ITV across multiple generations and within the same families in a community in South Africa. Method: Drawing from the third phase of a longitudinal cohort study, participants experiencing violence were purposively sampled, and interviews were conducted at two time points with young adults, their oldest child, and their former caregivers in seven multigenerational families (n = 38 interviews). Results: Using a multiple case study design, findings of risks for ITV were grounded in these themes: (a) unresolved aggression reenacted in the next generation, (b) complicated parenting arrangements leading to challenging attachment relationships across generations, and (c) subscription to inflexible injunctive norms causing marginalization across generations. Central to all these themes was reenactment of the past in the present and significant underlying vulnerability in families characterized by violence transmission. The violence of the past and the present was rooted in ongoing structural drivers of violence, including poverty, food insecurity, unemployment or underemployment, poor mental health, poor services (of justice, health, education, child protection), and poor understanding of child and adolescent development. Conclusions: Comprehending how violence is transmitted within the same families and across multiple generations offers insight on the risks of ITV to create more targeted prevention and intervention efforts to curb it.

Objective: Adolescent loneliness has been identified as a potential precursor to poor psychological health and well-being outcomes in adulthood. However, less is known about adolescent loneliness and violence outcomes in adulthood. This study fills this gap by examining how loneliness during adolescence is associated with both victimization and perpetration of intimate partner violence (IPV) and non-IPV contexts. Method: Utilizing data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, this study employs sibling fixed effects models to control for unobserved family-level backgrounds. This approach allows for a more precise estimation of the relationship between adolescent loneliness and subsequent violence outcomes by accounting for potential confounding variables inherent within family environments. Results: Loneliness in adolescence was positively associated with IPV victimization and perpetration in adulthood, even after controlling for a range of individual and family-level covariates. The associations were attenuated, yet remained statistically significant, controlling for sibling fixed effects. Conversely, no significant associations were observed between adolescent loneliness and non-IPV outcomes (either victimization or perpetration). Conclusions: These results highlight the critical need for early interventions focused on reducing loneliness during adolescence. These interventions should be specifically designed to address the social and emotional development of youths to prevent future violence in intimate relationships. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of the pathways from adolescent loneliness to different types of adult violence, emphasizing the importance of targeted prevention strategies.

Objective: A prominent theory accounting for the development and maintenance of aggressive behavior from childhood to adolescence is the social cognitive model, which holds that aggressive behavior is sustained over time through various context-dependent beliefs, biases, and schemas that emerge through repeated observation of aggressive social interactions. In this study, we provide a novel test of whether this model could also account for late adolescent and young adult weapon use. Method: We use integrative data analysis to combine information from two longitudinal studies of youth in urban areas (Study 1: N = 426, four waves over 13 years, from ages 8 to 27; Study 2: N = 200, four waves over 4 years, from ages 15 to 18; total N = 626, 51% female, 56% Black). Data consist of both youth and parent report. Results: We show that normative beliefs supporting aggression promote the observational learning of weapon use in late adolescence and early adulthood. In addition, we show that these normative beliefs that promote the observational learning of weapon use in late adolescence and early adulthood are significantly stronger for people who 8-years earlier scored higher on callousness or who held normative beliefs approving of retaliatory aggression at that time. Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that interventions in childhood and adolescence that counteract normative beliefs approving of aggression and that reduce callousness will lessen the likelihood of the later imitation of observed neighborhood weapon violence by the intervened youth.

Objective: Targeted violence (i.e., violence against a preidentified target intended to influence the broader population and/or generate publicity for the perpetrator or their grievance) is a national security threat and an urgent public health problem affecting individual and community well-being. Drawing on decades of experience and examples from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the public health field, this article illustrates how the four-step public health approach to violence prevention (i.e., define and monitor the problem; identify risk and protective factors; develop and test prevention strategies; ensure widespread adoption) can be applied to accelerate advancements in evidence-based practice for the primary prevention of targeted violence. Method: In this narrative review, examples of risk and protective factors and evidence of what works to prevent violence and suicide are compared with the targeted violence literature to identify shared risk and protective factors, promising prevention approaches, and key research gaps. Results: This article highlights opportunities to enhance consistency in measurement and expand public health data systems, identifies an initial set of 20 shared risk and protective factors, highlights evidence-based violence and suicide prevention approaches with potential for preventing targeted violence, and suggests focus areas for advancing research. Select ongoing efforts by the Department of Homeland Security illustrate the public health model in action. Conclusion: Applying the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s public health approach to violence prevention can bridge efforts by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Department of Homeland Security, and communities to build a violence prevention infrastructure connecting science and action across multiple forms of violence, including targeted violence.

Objective: This study investigates how proximal factors such as student, family, and peer relationships, and school environment contribute to special educator experiences of aggression at school. Method: Electronic surveys were distributed to approximately 3,400 teachers across the United States, 430 of whom were special educators who answered at least one of the four open-ended survey questions. These responses were analyzed using deductive, directed content analysis. Results: Findings reveal that teachers attribute their most upsetting experiences with aggression to microsystems of classroom, environment, school policy, and administrator actions. Special educators also shared how student and teacher environments interacted to influence their experiences with violence and aggression in the workplace. Conclusions: Results suggest a need for increased administrator support of special educators, more effective and clear school disciplinary policies, and better placement of educators and students to increase student and teacher well-being.

Objective: Caregiver socialization is an important component of youth behavior development, yet little research has considered whether caregiver messages about use of fighting and nonviolent conflict resolution may be related to youths’ beliefs about fighting and subsequent firearm carriage. This study examined the extent to which youths’ beliefs about fighting moderated the relation between caregiver messages about how to manage conflict and youth firearm carrying. Method: Participants were 254 youth (ages 12–17; 56% female; 88% African American) drawn from a larger community-based study of positive youth development and youth violence prevention in a low-income urban area. Binary logistic regression analyses were conducted in Statistical Package for the Social Scences. Covariates included age, sex, race, and intervention community. Results: Significant direct effects were produced between caregiver messages supporting fighting and nonviolence and youth firearm carrying, as were youth beliefs supporting reactive and instrumental aggression with firearm carrying. Though the interaction term was significant in the first two models, further examination of conditional probabilities indicated that youth beliefs were did not moderate the relations between caregiver messages and firearm carrying. Conclusions: This study establishes preliminary relations between caregiver socialization messages and youth firearm carrying. Further longitudinal research is needed to understand caregiver-youth socialization and messages about how to manage conflict and reduce firearm behavior.

Objective: The I³ model outlines how factors interact to predict intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration such as relationship tension, emotion regulation (ER) and distress tolerance difficulties, and alcohol use. Despite the model’s emphasis on these factors’ synergistic nature (i.e., “perfect storm”), they are typically examined disparately and use retrospective self-report over an aggregate timeframe, preventing a nuanced examination of IPV. The current event-level study aimed to (a) examine the confluence of event-level instigating (e.g., relationship tension), impelling (e.g., ER difficulties, distress intolerance), and disinhibiting (e.g., alcohol use) I³ factors predicting IPV perpetration; and (b) investigate how between- and within-person deviations in these I³ factors impact likelihood of same-day IPV perpetration. Method: A community sample of 150 young adults with IPV histories completed 25 online daily diaries examining I³ factors and IPV perpetration. Results: Using generalized estimating equations examining the interactive effects of relationship tension, ER difficulties, distress intolerance, and alcohol use on IPV likelihood, results showed a significant three-way interaction between average levels of relationship tension, ER difficulties, and alcohol use predicting IPV perpetration likelihood. At high average levels of relationship tension and alcohol use, ER difficulties had a significant positive effect on IPV perpetration likelihood. When examining within-person deviations in I³ factors, only deviations in relationship tension above one’s average level significantly predicted IPV perpetration likelihood. Conclusion: Findings support the synergistic nature of relationship tension, ER difficulties, and alcohol use on increased likelihood of IPV perpetration, particularly for one’s typical level of each factor.

Objective: The present study examined whether self-blame from sexual assault while in the military mediated associations between institutional betrayal from sexual assault and past-week depressive and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. Method: All participants were cisgender women who were former or current U.S. service members (N = 153; M = 32.37 years; SD = 8.35) who endorsed sexual assault while in the military. On average, sexual assault had occurred 7.07 years (SD = 7.62) earlier. Participants completed an online survey in which they were asked about institutional betrayal stemming from their military sexual assault, and self-blame from their sexual assault experience, in addition to depressive and PTSD symptoms. Results: Self-blame that occurred from sexual assault mediated the relationship between institutional betrayal attributed to sexual assault, and depressive symptoms and PTSD symptoms. Conclusions: Findings point to the importance of self-blame from sexual assault in understanding the association between institutional betrayal and mental health among military women who report sexual assault while in the military. These findings lend support to betrayal trauma theory (Freyd, 1994). These findings also have implications for those who work with military women who are survivors of sexual assault and suggest that addressing self-blame associated with sexual assault may be important for treatment.

Objective: Intimate partner violence (IPV) is prevalent in adolescence and often leads to future relationship problems. Understanding the factors that promote IPV is crucial for targeting prevention and intervention efforts in this developmental stage. Attitudes of acceptance and justification of this type of violence have been shown to play a significant role in increasing the risk of this behavior occurring, which underscores the need to accurately measure this construct. This study aims to adapt the Acceptability of Intimate Partner Violence scale, originally developed for adults, for use with adolescents; validate the adapted measure (A-ADV); develop a shortened version; and compare acceptability levels between adolescents and young adults. Method: Three samples were collected: two from adolescents (N = 824 and N = 406) and one from young adults (N = 347). The latent structure, internal consistency, and validity evidence of the A-ADV were assessed. Item discrimination and thresholds were examined using item response theory. Additionally, automatic test assembly was used to develop a shortened version of the scale using both quantitative and qualitative criteria. Results: Both the full-length and shortened A-ADV followed a one-factor model, presented adequate internal consistency and validity evidence, and mapped accurately moderate to very high acceptability levels. On average, adolescents presented higher levels of attitudes of acceptability than young adults. Conclusions: The validation of the A-ADV for adolescents is an important contribution to the field. This measure’s psychometric properties and validity evidence support its use for the assessment of attitudes of acceptability in the adolescent population.

Objective: This study aimed to address the gap in knowledge by investigating a comprehensive model that simultaneously examines the direct effects of self-esteem on aggression and the indirect effects mediated by loneliness and sympathy for violent radicalization. In this way, we seek to provide a deeper understanding of how these socioemotional and ideological factors are collectively related to aggressive behavior among young people. Method: Data were collected from 767 university students (M = 21.14, SD = 1.90) using an online survey containing self-report scales on self-esteem, loneliness, violent radicalization, and aggressive behavior. The main analyses were conducted using path analysis with a maximum likelihood estimator. Results: The results indicate that the direct effect of self-esteem on aggressive behavior was nonsignificant. Aggression was directly related to loneliness and sympathy for violent radicalization, with loneliness showing the strongest association. Simultaneously, path analysis confirmed two indirect effects from self-esteem to aggressive behavior, one via loneliness and the other via radicalization. Additionally, a sequential pathway emerged, showing that self-esteem influences aggressive behavior through loneliness and then radicalization. Conclusions: The findings demonstrate that self-esteem indirectly influences aggressive behavior through its connections with loneliness and sympathy for violent radicalization, without a direct effect on aggression. These results underscore the importance of addressing loneliness and the need to mitigate the influence of loneliness and radical ideologies in interventions targeting aggressive behavior, with a focus on promoting inclusive environments that foster social belonging.

Objective: Intimate partner homicide (IPH) has been scarcely studied. Research on the relationship dynamics between the perpetrator and the victim is particularly limited due to the reliance on national data sets, where information is often incomplete, and to the absence of the victim’s perspective. Inclusion of the voices of attempted-IPH survivors can enhance the understanding of IPH dynamics and the nuances of the perpetrator–victim relationship. Thus, the aim of this study was to explore how women who had survived an attempted homicide by their male partners retrospectively perceived their relationship with the perpetrator prior to the homicide attempt, using coercive control as a guiding theoretical framework for analyzing these experiences. Method: Interpretative phenomenological analysis methodology was used to conduct in-depth, semistructured interviews with 14 participants, all women who had survived an attempted IPH. The interviews were based on an interview guide, which facilitated a detailed exploration of their lived experiences, allowing the researcher to capture each survivor’s nuanced and personal insights. Results: Three themes emerged from the participants’ narratives, addressing their retrospective perspective of the relationship dynamics: (1) failure to recognize violence in the relationship, (2) precarious and tumultuous relationship dynamics, and (3) dependency as the driving force in the relationship. Conclusions: The study findings indicate that IPH may play a significant part in an ongoing process of escalating coercive and controlling behaviors. Thus, recognizing and addressing the subtle, insidious nature of coercive control in intimate partner relationships is crucial for effective intervention and support.

Objective: Intimate partner violence (IPV) during pregnancy is a significant public health problem with negative consequences for the well-being of fetuses and pregnant couples. This study examined the association between emotion dysregulation and IPV during pregnancy from a dyadic perspective. Method: Participants were 113 racially diverse, low-income couples in their second or third trimester of pregnancy. Participants completed the Revised Conflict Tactics Scale and the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale. Couple-level IPV variables were created based on at least one member’s report of IPV within the couple. Percent agreement, κ, and Yule’s Y statistics were used to assess couple agreement about IPV occurrence regarding both perpetration and victimization. Actor–partner interdependence models examined whether actor and/or partner emotion dysregulation was associated with actor IPV perpetration during pregnancy. Results: IPV was best characterized as situational couple violence including aggressive behaviors unlikely to cause severe injury. While total emotion dysregulation was not significantly related to IPV perpetration, impulse control difficulties when upset had significant actor and partner effects on actor IPV perpetration during pregnancy. Main effects of gender/gestational status also showed that pregnant women were significantly more likely to perpetrate IPV than the fathers of their babies. Conclusions: This study tentatively identified actor and partner impulse control difficulties when upset as a predictor of IPV during pregnancy and a potential treatment target for pregnant couples at risk for, or engaging in, situational couple violence.

Objective: This study analyzes, from a longitudinal perspective, the efficacy of the situational change coping strategies used by victims of intimate partner violence against women, using a structured model of change (transtheoretical model of change: four stages) and in accordance with the intensity of negative emotions. Method: The sample comprised survivors of intimate partner violence against women from a victims’ support network in Spain. Following an initial assessment (Wave 1, n = 201 victims), 49.8% (n = 100) also participated in the second wave (1 year later). Personal interviews lasting 1.30–2.00 hr were held with each victim. A missing values analysis and several analyses of variance revealed differences between Waves 1 and 2 in terms of affect levels and coping strategies. Mixed models were used to analyze the efficacy of the behavior (use of strategies in the different stages of change) over time and in accordance with the intensity of negative emotions. Results: Findings indicate a positive evolution along the change continuum over time. Participants had lower levels of negative affect and were moving toward a violence-free situation over time. Emotional intensity moderated the effect of coping strategies on stage change. The use of direct action and seeking emotional and informational social support in situations of high negative intensity resulted in progress through the stages of change over time. Conclusions: Certain turning points were identified, marked by high negative affect, which are important predictors of change.

Objective: Although crowding would reasonably increase interpersonal hostility and violence, supporting empirical evidence is scarce and inconsistent. Most prison crowding literature focuses on human deprivation based on occupancy rates, the implications of which are difficult to interpret. Conversely, urban crowding literature postulates that crowding is related to frustration by interpersonal interference (spatial density). Crowding was also connected to a lack of privacy and overwhelming social load, referring to population size (social density). This study contrasts the interpersonal interference and social load models by simultaneously testing new theory-based measures of each. Method: Mixed-effects regression between reported prison violence and spatial and social density was conducted with data from all eligible Israeli prisons collected spanning 4 years, using facility and unit attributes as control variables. Spatial and social density were measured for each unit according to daily routine and occupancy. Spatial density was measured inside and outside the cell, and social density was related to both cell and unit. Results: Spatial density inside and outside the cell significantly correlates with violence rate. All hypotheses testing social density were nonsignificant. Conclusions: Violence in extreme social conditions is affected by space-based goal interference rather than social load or lack of privacy. Results suggest letting inmates outside the cells as a means to reduce violence.

Objective: The present study examined multiple risk and protective factors of intimate partner violence (IPV) in Pakistan including the demographic factors and women empowerment variables such as land/house ownership, decision-making power, and opinion on wife beating. Method: We analyzed a nationally representative cross-sectional sample of 3,303 ever-married women (15–49 years old), from the most recent Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey of 2017–2018. Results: Those who were older at first marriage were less likely to report lifetime IPV with a difference in risk between 13.8% and 18.3% points among older age groups versus 10- to 14-year-olds. Nearly the same effect on violence risk reduction was observed for having a say in choosing a husband, higher education of husband and wife, and being among the richest 20%. Internet use, decision making on visits to one’s own family or relatives, own health care, and major household purchases were significant protective factors against IPV. Those who believed that wife beating was justifiable if the wife went out without telling the husband, neglected children, argued with the husband, and refused sex with the husband were at greater risk of IPV. Conclusions: Among the empowerment indicators, the wife’s involvement in decision making, not accepting wife beating, and internet use were the most significant protective factors against IPV in Pakistan. The study also reports on the significant sociodemographic characteristics that protect against IPV in Pakistani women with implications for future research and policymaking.

Objective: The rates of suicide and prevalence of mental health and behavioral problems have been increasing among adolescents and young adults in the United States over the past two decades. This study examines underlying distal and mediating proximal factors leading to suicide attempts during the sensitive transition period of emerging adulthood. Method: We conducted bivariate, multivariate, and mediation regression analyses of 5 years of data from a large national student survey to first identify and then decompose relationships between past-year suicide attempt into distal and proximal associations, controlling for a range of personal and sociodemographic respondent characteristics. Results: Of 372,000 college students surveyed, 4,292 (1.2%) reported having attempted suicide during the past year. Mediation by proximal, precipitating factors accounted for percentages of the total distal factors as follows: history of diagnosed mental health disorder (20.1%), history of diagnosed alcohol use disorder (25.7%), history of physical abuse (73.9%), financial distress experienced during childhood (40.2%) and having a disability (23.4%). Recent depression severity and recent sexual assault victimization accounted for ≥40% of the total indirect association of each distal factor. Mediation of diagnosed mental health disorder and diagnosed alcohol use disorder were attributed primarily to conceptually related proximal factors. Conclusions: Information regarding dynamic relationships between distal and proximal risk factors may inform integrated clinical and comprehensive campus suicide prevention strategies to mitigate the life-threatening consequences of mental health disorders, alcohol and drug misuse, and stressful life experiences during emerging adulthood.

Objective: Acute risk factors for family violence are variables that can change rapidly and are associated with an increased risk of imminent family violence. Identifying these factors could enhance the understanding of family violence and assist correctional staff to assess and respond to short-term changes in risk. Existing risk measures contain possible acute factors but have not been empirically tested to see if they predict short-term (i.e., imminent) recidivism. Method: Using a large sample of individuals under community supervision in New Zealand (N = 16,001), we examined the extent to which the item and total scores on the Acute subscale of the Dynamic Risk Assessment for Offender Re-Entry (DRAOR) demonstrated statistical properties expected of acute risk factors for family violence. Results: Although most recidivism events were not preceded by sudden increases in DRAOR Acute subscale or item scores, change scores over short periods were significantly associated with imminent family violence recidivism, after controlling for baseline scores on those measures and static risk. Items with the strongest relationship with recidivism were access to victims and employment problems; unexpectedly, recidivism was not preceded by acute problems with interpersonal relationships. Change scores meaningfully improved the identification of recidivism events compared to scores earlier in supervision but not compared to the most up-to-date assessment information. Conclusions: The DRAOR Acute subscale, and several of its component individual items, demonstrated properties consistent with acute risk factors for family violence. Correctional professionals should consider incorporating these factors into assessment and use them to guide risk management and intervention.

Objective: The objective of this study was to conduct a systematic review (2006–2024) of the published peer-reviewed literature on unacknowledged sexual assault (SA; i.e., sexual assaults not labeled as such). The review sought to answer four research questions. (a) What is known about SA acknowledgment in populations beyond college women? (b) What are factors that contribute to not acknowledging SA beyond assault characteristics? (c) What are differences in postassault outcomes between unacknowledged and acknowledged SA survivors? (d) Do unacknowledged and acknowledged SA survivors differ in revictimization risk? Method: A systematic review of the SA acknowledgment literature was conducted in October 2024 via database searches (Medline, APA PsycInfo, Scopus) and review of reference sections of identified studies. Results: A total of 83 articles representing 76 samples of 29,786 participants were included. Included studies supported higher rates of unacknowledged SA among cisgender men and lower rates of unacknowledged SA in community samples of women. Multiple factors contributed to survivors’ acknowledgment decision, including the “match” between the assault and SA stereotypes, as well as motivational factors. Several social-cognitive outcomes differed between acknowledged and unacknowledged survivors, including assault disclosure, self-blame, and shame. Finally, unacknowledged survivors had high rates of sexual revictimization. Conclusions: This systematic review documented advancements in our understanding of the prevalence of unacknowledged SA, motivational factors affecting acknowledgment, and recovery following unacknowledged SA. However, notable gaps remain, pointing to a need for longitudinal research on diverse groups of unacknowledged survivors’ recovery and factors associated with changing acknowledgment status.

Objective: There is limited knowledge about the co-occurrence of firearm-related victimization, perpetration, and witnessing among community samples of youth, rather than high-risk samples. The purpose of this study was to examine the prevalence and patterns of different types of firearm-related violence involvement in a community sample of youth. Method: Participants were 1,128 youth (52% male; 52% Black; 31% White; Mage = 16.2, SD = 1.15) attending four public high schools across two districts in one county in the southeastern United States. Results: About 11% and nearly 15% of participants reported perpetrating or having been victimized by firearm-related violence; 22% had witnessed firearm-related violence. Youth who reported perpetrating firearm violence had disproportionately high rates of firearm-related victimization and witnessing. Latent class analysis revealed no exposure, witnessing only, low exposure, and victimization and perpetration subgroups. Over 70% of adolescents in the victimization and perpetration group reported both victimization and perpetration. Youth gun ownership predicted greater likelihood of membership in the victimization and perpetration class, and family gun ownership predicted greater likelihood of membership in any class that involved victimization. Conclusions: Involvement in firearm-related violence was alarmingly high in this sample; these estimates are likely representative of highly burdened, highly segregated communities in urban areas across the southeastern United States. A high-risk subgroup of youth had disproportionate involvement across multiple types of involvement, which may be addressed by structural interventions to mitigate risks associated with community divestment and disinvestment, as well as early identification and intervention for youth who have directly witnessed firearm-related violence.

Objective: Bullying and teen dating violence (TDV) perpetration are major public health concerns for middle school youth. Previous research indicates bullying perpetration predicts future TDV perpetration; however, the potential bidirectional associations between bullying and TDV have not been fully explored. The present study evaluated bidirectional, longitudinal associations between bullying and TDV perpetration in middle school youth. Method: Cross-lagged panel models were used to evaluate bidirectional associations for bullying and TDV perpetration in middle school youth (n = 1,840; M = 12.16 years, SD = 0.42) across three time points, 6 months apart, starting at the fall of seventh grade and ending in the fall of eighth grade. Results: Findings indicated bullying perpetration and TDV perpetration demonstrated stability across time. Across all three waves, bullying perpetration at one time point consistently predicted TDV perpetration at the subsequent time point (medium effect sizes). TDV perpetration at T1 predicted bullying perpetration at T2 (medium effect size), and TDV perpetration at T2 did not substantially predict bullying perpetration at T3 (small effect size). Conclusions: Findings indicate once middle school youth initiate bullying or TDV, they tend to persist in this behavior. Findings suggest all peer relationships (including friends and dating partners) may serve as training grounds for each other, with youth who learn violence perpetration is effective in one type of relationship (e.g., dating) transferring this behavior to others (e.g., friendship). Findings support the need for cross-cutting violence interventions that target both bullying and TDV simultaneously.

Objective: Our objective is to meta-analyze the relationship between exposure to violent song lyrics and aggressive thoughts, aggressive feelings, aggressive behavior, and physiological arousal. To date, no published meta-analysis has examined these relationships. Method: Our literature search uncovered 35 independent studies. We coded several moderators (e.g., tempo, study design, etc.) to examine the ubiquity of violent music lyrics on aggression findings. Results: Our meta-analysis showed that violent music exposure was related to aggression. Moderation tests showed that the construct influenced the overall results—violent music lyrics were related to aggressive behavior, aggressive cognitions, and aggressive affect, while the effect on physiological arousal was unclear. Moreover, neither study design (experimental vs. nonexperimental), publication status (published or not), the tempo of the music, nor publication year moderated the overall effect. Conclusions: In sum, results showed that violent song lyric exposure was positively correlated with aggression, which substantially adds to the body of literature focused on violent media effects.

Objective: The present study sought to understand what characteristics delineate experiences of repeat non-bias-related victimization and repeated bias-related victimization—specifically, the role of cultural factors and colorism in contributing to bias-related victimization among Latinx adults. Method: We use two waves of the Longitudinal Evaluation of Victimization of Latinos survey data collected from three sites (Boston, Houston/Galveston, San Diego) in 2018 and 2019. The data were collected to understand better the experiences of hate crime and other bias-related victimization of Latinx adults in the United States. We use multinomial logistic regression to determine what characteristics separate individuals from experiencing no bias-related victimization, discontinuation from bias-related victimization, initiation into bias-related victimization, and repeated bias-related victimization. Results: Results of our study show that the most notable distinction between experiences of repeat bias victimization and nonbiased victimization are visual markers of race and ethnicity. We find that participants who self-identified as having darker skin (risk ratio = 1.69, p < .001) were at a significantly higher risk of experiencing repeated bias-related victimization, a relationship that was absent in models looking at nonbias victimization. Marginal effects help to illuminate the dramatic difference skin tone plays in bias-related victimization as opposed to nonbiased victimization. Conclusions: Our findings convey research implications, particularly surrounding the role of colorism in bias and victimization scholarship. This study further connects the role of gender and colorism in experiencing bias-related victimization. Research and practice should continue to unpack these characteristics’ role in victimization risk, victimization outcomes, and victimization resources.