The Relationships among Interparental Conflict, Peer, Media Effects and the Violence Behaviour of Adolescents: The Mediator Role of Attitudes towards Violence.

AbstractThe aim of this research is to investigate interparental conflict, peer and media effects and its direct relationship with the violence behaviour of adolescents and the mediator role of attitudes towards violence. 2120 students, 964 girls and 1156 boys chosen from 7th and 8th grades of one private and eleven public elementary schools in Adana have made up the sampling group of this study. In this research, Attitudes towards Violence Scale, Aggression Questionnaire, Perceived Multidimensional Violence Sources Inventory and Children's Perception of Interparental Conflict Scale have been administered to the students. Research data have been tested by using Structural Equation Modeling. The results reveal that variables except interparental conflict have positive effect on this model. It has been found that attitudes towards violence have partial mediator role in the relationship between media-peer effects and physical violence while they have entire mediator role in the relationship between media-peer effects and verbal violence. The research findings have been discussed within social cognitive model context.Key WordsAttitudes Towards Violence, Media, Peers, Violence, Interparental Conflict, Structural Equation Modeling.Violence behavior in adolescents is a fundamental problem commonly encountered in todays world. When the literature is reviewed, it is seen that there is a great amount of research conducted on the issue. Kepenkci and Cinkir (2005) reported that 35.5% of the high school students in Turkey resort to violence at least once in a school year. Alikasifoglu, Ercan, Erginoz, Uysal, and Kaymak Deniz (2004) conducted a study in Istanbul to investigate the prevalence of displaying violence behavior among high school students and they reported that 42% (n=1720) of the students were involved in at least one fight in previous year.Different from developmental features of children and societal environmental factors (e.g. being subjected to continuous environmental stress), experiences both in peer groups and families have a very important role in the development of violence behavior (Avci & Gucray, 2010; Brendgen, Vitaro, Tremblay, & Wanner, 2002; Peksaygih & Gure, 2008). Particularly, inter-parental conflicts and aggressions within the family environment are seen to have an important role in experiencing a sense of externalization by children during the period of puberty (Peksaygili & Gure, 2008). By the same token, Tornincaso (2006) found that problematic behaviors of an adolescent are an important predictor of inter-parental conflicts. Moreover, Mazefsky and Farrel (2005) argued that an adolescents witnessing violence at home, low level of family support and inadequate parental practices are related to the demonstration of violence behaviors. Growing up in an environment where inter-parental conflicts exist may result in displaying aggressive behaviors by children by teaching them that such behaviors are appropriate and allowed (Grych & Fincham, 1990). At the same time, children may develop maladjusted social information processing. Children may develop a propensity to view environmental clues as hostile and the world as full of conflicts. For instance, Rutter (1994) showed that children displaying bias of assigning hostile meanings to events are more likely to behave aggressively. Moreover, these children can never develop conflict coping mechanism required to adjust; hence, they cannot acquire the ability to deal with interpersonal conflicts (Cummings, Davies, & Simpson, 1994). The child may regard aggressiveness as an appropriate method of conflict management and develop poor problem solving capacity and destructive conflict resolution skills (Grych & Fincham, 1990). Parents are expected to be the most prominent role models in the development of childrens social behaviors. Therefore, modeling of parents results in childrens learning aggressive behaviors by observing hostility and anger and accordingly provides children with direct explanation for adopting similar behaviors in their interpersonal relations (e. …