The effects of attitudes towards violence on violent behaviour among secondary school students: Moderation by gender and aggressiveness

Abstract

The aim of this research was to explore the effects of attitudes towards violence on different forms of violence behaviour among secondary school students. The moderator roles of gender and aggressiveness in relationships between attitude and violence were also tested. The Bullying Attitudinal Scale, the Peer Violence and Victimisation Questionnaire (PVVQ), and the Aggressiveness questionnaire AVDH were administered on the sample of 643 second- to fourth-grade secondary school students from urban area (61.7% boys)grade. The results have shown that among boys more positive attitudes towards violence had significant effect on direct violence forms - physical and verbal, but that it depended on aggressiveness whether violence would be manifested as physical. Namely, the boys with more positive attitudes towards violence, who, at the same time, scored higher on aggressiveness, were more prone to physical violence. Unlike them, the boys with more positive attitudes towards violence but with lower aggressiveness were less prone to physical aggression. In the case of verbal violence, it has been shown that boys with more positive attitudes towards violence were more prone to verbal violence, regardless of aggressiveness. Aggressiveness had a unique contribution to the prediction of verbal violence and only a significant effect in the prediction of relational violence. The importance of changing the attitudes towards violence in the context of violence prevention is discussed.