Violence-Related Behaviors of Adolescents

Abstract

Examined in this study were the relations between two dimensions of parenting behavior and violence-related behaviors in a sample of 1,221 9th-and 10th-grade adolescents. The results indicated that the higher the perceived responsiveness and demandingness offathers and of mothers, the lower the likelihood that adolescents had hit peers, beat up peers, carried a weapon to school, or threatened a peer with a weapon. When compared with adolescents who perceived high levels of parental responsiveness or demandingness, adolescents who perceived relatively low levels of these dimensions were two to three times more likely to report violence-related behaviors. The results also indicated that parental responsiveness and demandingness were associated more strongly with the violence-related behaviors offemales than with those of males. Studies are needed that evaluate the effects of parenting skills training on adolescent violence and that identify gender differences in how family socialization processes influence adolescents' risks of violence-related behaviors.