The relationships among interparental conflict, peer, media effects and the violence behaviour of adolescents: The mediator role of attitudes toward violence

This research was to investigate interparental conflict, peer and media effects and its relationship with psychical and verbal violence and the mediator role of attitudes toward violence in terms of social cognitive theories. For the sampling group of this study, 2120 students, 964 girls and 1156 boys (Mage = 13.67, range = 12 to 17) were chosen from 7th and 8th grades of one private and eleven public elementary schools in Adana. Children?s Perception of Interparental Conflict Scale, Attitudes toward Violence Scale, Aggression Questionnaire and Perceived Multidimensional Violence Sources Inventory were administered to the students during the class period. The results of structural equation model revealed that variables except interparental conflict have made positive effect on this model. It was found that attitudes toward violence have partial mediator role in the relation between media-peer effects and physical violence while they have entire mediator role in the relation between media-peer effects and verbal violence. As the violence types among girls and boys have varied in the research, the model was tested separately according to the gender of students. Interparental conflict was removed from the model since it didn?t have any contribution on structural equation model for both groups. In both groups it was seen that attitudes toward violence have an entire mediator role in the relation between media-peer effects and verbal violence. The main difference between models is that while in the group of boys, attitudes toward violence have partial mediator role in the relation between physical violence and media-peer effects, in the group of girls the attitudes toward violence have no mediator role. The research findings were discussed in social cognitive model context.