Effects of Parenting and Community Violence on Aggression-Related Social Goals: a Monozygotic Twin Differences Study

Exposure to community violence as a mechanism linking neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage and neural responses to reward

A growing literature links socioeconomic disadvantage and adversity to brain function, including disruptions in reward processing. Less research has examined exposure to community violence (ECV) as a specific adversity related to differences in reward-related brain activation, despite the prevalence of community violence exposure for those living in disadvantaged contexts. The current study tested whether ECV was associated with reward-related ventral striatum (VS) activation after accounting for familial factors associated with differences in reward-related activation (e.g. parenting and family income). Moreover, we tested whether ECV is a mechanism linking socioeconomic disadvantage to reward-related activation in the VS. We utilized data from 444 adolescent twins sampled from birth records and residing in neighborhoods with above-average levels of poverty. ECV was associated with greater reward-related VS activation, and the association remained after accounting for family-level markers of disadvantage. We identified an indirect pathway in which socioeconomic disadvantage predicted greater reward-related activation via greater ECV, over and above family-level adversity. These findings highlight the unique impact of community violence exposure on reward processing and provide a mechanism through which socioeconomic disadvantage may shape brain function.

Differences in MB-COMT DNA methylation in monozygotic twins on phenotypic indicators of impulsivity

Epigenetic modifications of the membrane bound catechol-O-methyltransferase (MB-COMT) gene may affect the enzymatic degradation of dopamine, and consequently, human behavior. This study investigated the association between membrane bound catechol-O-methyltransferase DNA methylation (DNAm) differences in 92 monozygotic (MZ) twins with phenotypic manifestations of cognitive, behavioral, and personality indicators associated with reward-related behaviors and lack of control. We used pyrosequencing to determine DNAm of the regulatory region of membrane bound catechol-O-methyltransferase in saliva DNA. Results of intrapair differences in the percentage of membrane bound catechol-O-methyltransferase DNAm at each of five CpG sites show that there are associations between phenotypic indicators of lack of control and membrane bound catechol-O-methyltransferase DNAm differences on CpG1, CpG2 and CpG4, suggesting the common epigenetic patterns for personality traits, cognitive functions, and risk behaviors.

Reflection of nursing students violence tendencies on care behaviors

PURPOSE

Although violence is a preventable phenomenon, whose negative effects may be reduced, it should be analyzed with a holistic approach to determine its possible effects on caring behaviors, which constitute the basis of the profession of nursing. This study aims to reveal the reflections of the tendency to violence among the nursing students on their caring behavior.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A survey was conducted within a convenient sample of 292 nursing students. Personal Information Form, Tendency to Violence Scale, and the Caring Behaviors Inventory (CBI-24) were used for data collection.

FINDINGS

There was a negative and moderate relationship between the tendency to violence and the scores obtained from the CBI-24 and its subscales. Simple linear regression analysis revealed that tendency to violence explained 10% and had a significant effect on caring behaviors (β = -0.328, p < .001).

PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS

Tendency to violence among the nursing students might be determined before their graduation and the students with such tendencies might be closely monitored and supported to reduce these tendencies.

Violence exposure across multiple contexts as predictors of reactive and proactive aggression in Chinese preadolescents

Based on different functions of aggression, the conceptual distinction of reactive and proactive aggression has been proposed. It is widely acknowledged that adolescents' violence exposure contributes to later perpetration of aggressive behaviors. However, few studies have compared the effects of violence exposure on reactive/proactive aggression based on the forms (i.e., witnessing and being victimized) and the contexts (i.e., family, community, and school), especially in preadolescents. Thus, the relationship between two forms of violence exposure (witnessing and victimization) and later perpetrating reactive and proactive aggression were compared within and across three social contexts in a sample of Chinese preadolescents. Participants were 609 preadolescents 51.9% boys) recruited from five primary schools in China. Information on two forms of violence exposure across multiple contexts and demography were collected at Time 1 (M_age  = 10.65), and aggression data (i.e., reactive and proactive aggression) were collected a year later at Time 2. Results evidenced witnessing and being victimized by violence in the home were more consistently related to later perpetration of reactive and proactive aggression. Witnessing family violence was significantly associated with later perpetration of reactive aggression than witnessing violence in the community. Being victimized by violence in the community and the home were significantly associated with later perpetration of proactive aggression than school victimization. These findings provide a deeper understanding of the roles of both types of violence exposure across contexts in later perpetration of aggression during early adolescence.

Early Adolescents' Social Goals in Peer Conflict Situations: A Mixed Methods Study

Identification of goals is a key social-cognitive process that guides whether adolescents engage in aggressive or nonviolent behavior during social conflicts. This study investigated early adolescents' goals in response to hypothetical social conflict situations involving close friends and peers. Participants (n = 160; Mage = 12.7, 53% female) were 7th graders from two urban and one rural middle school. On average, participants identified 2.5 goals for each situation. Qualitative analysis using a grounded theory approach identified nine themes representing the goals generated by participants: instrumental-control, relationship maintenance, maintain image and reputation/self-defense, conflict avoidance, seek more information, revenge, tension reduction, moral, and stay out of trouble. Quantitative analysis indicated that female participants identified more goals than male participants, but there were few differences in their types of goals. There were few differences across school sites. The findings highlight the variety of social goals specific to the developmental period of early adolescence.

Desensitization and Violent Video Games: Mechanisms and Evidence

Desensitization, the reduction of cognitive, emotional, and/or behavioral responses to a stimulus, is an automatic and unconscious phenomenon often experienced in everyday life. Exposure to violent media, especially violent video games, may cause desensitization to real-life violence. Desensitization to violence blocks empathy which is needed to trigger the moral reasoning process that triggers prosocial responding. Representative research was reviewed to examine links between exposure to violent video games and desensitization to violence in children and adolescents. It was concluded that exposure to violent video games increases the risk of desensitization to violence, which in turn may increase aggression and decrease prosocial behavior. Parents should be counseled to discuss the differences between real and screen violence, to encourage nonviolent problem-solving, and to provide empathy-building experiences for their children.

Associations Between Parental Psychopathic Traits, Parenting, and Adolescent Callous-Unemotional Traits

Callous-unemotional (CU) traits (i.e., callousness, low empathy, shallow affect) have been conceptualized as a downward extension of the interpersonal and affective components of adult psychopathy and are associated with stable and severe antisocial behavior. Research suggests that CU traits are moderately heritable, but also influenced by environmental factors, particularly parenting. We examined associations among mother and father psychopathic traits, parenting practices, and offspring CU traits in a community sample of 550 adolescent twins (Mean age = 13.99 years; SD 2.37; 56.4% male), incorporating multiple informants (mothers, fathers, child). Parental interpersonal-affective psychopathic traits were associated with adolescent CU traits and negative parenting (increased harshness, reduced warmth). Moreover, increased parental harshness and reduced warmth partially explained associations between parental interpersonal-affective traits and adolescent CU traits. There was also a significant direct effect specifically between mother interpersonal-affective traits and adolescent CU traits. Finally, using a twin difference design, we confirmed that adolescent CU traits were significantly impacted by non-shared environmental parenting influences (increased harshness, reduced warmth). These results suggest that mother and father interpersonal-affective traits appear to impact parenting practices and serve as risk factors for adolescent CU traits. However, many of the findings did not replicate when using cross-informant reports and were only present within single informant models, highlighting a role for shared informant variance as well. The results suggest the importance of accounting for parent personality in the development of effective parenting interventions for CU traits.

The Relationship Between Future Time Perspective and Psychological Violence Among Chinese College Students

Based on early experiences and current conditions, a future time perspective influences college students’ behaviors, while psychological violence critically threatens college students’ health. This study explored the relationship between a future time perspective and the psychological violence of perpetrators based on an online investigation of 1424 college students (87.1% women) aged 17 to 31 in China. The results showed that a future time perspective is significantly positively associated with psychological violence. Positive future orientation is negatively associated with psychological violence. Negative and confused future orientations are positively associated with psychological violence. These findings support the need to introduce an intervention regarding a future time perspective to reduce psychological violence among college students.

Is the association between childhood maltreatment and aggressive behavior mediated by hostile attribution bias in women? A discordant twin and sibling study

Understanding the mechanisms behind aggressive behavior (AGG) is vital so that effective prevention and intervention strategies can be developed. Maltreated children are hypothesized to be prone to social information processing biases, such as hostile attribution bias (HAB), which, in turn, may increase the likelihood of behaving aggressively. The first aim of the present study was to replicate findings regarding associations between childhood maltreatment (CM), HAB, and aggression in a population-based sample of Finnish female twins and their sisters (N = 2,167). However, these associations might not be causal but instead confounded by familial factors, shared between the variables. The second aim was, thus, to test the associations when potential confounding by familial (genetic or common environmental) effects were controlled for using a multilevel discordant twin and sibling design within (a) 379 pairs of twins (n_pairs  = 239) or siblings (n_pairs  = 140), and (b) within the 131 monozygotic (MZ) twin pairs. Consistent with previous studies, HAB mediated the association between CM and AGG when familial confounding was uncontrolled. No support was found for the mediation when controlling for familial confounding. Between-pair associations were found between CM and AGG, and between CM and HAB. In addition, within-pair associations were found between HAB and AGG, and between CM and AGG, however, these were nonsignificant in the discordant MZ analysis, offering the most stringent control of familial confounding. The results indicate the necessity of taking familial confounding into account when investigating the development of AGG.