NCJ Number
99203
Journal
Journal of Youth and Adolescence Volume: 13 Issue: 3 Dated: (1984) Pages: 225-238
Date Published
1984
Length
14 pages
Annotation
Children and adolescents in an inpatient psychiatric treatment facility were studied to examine the value of recorded incidents of aggressive behavior in developing predictive models of violence among youthful males.
Abstract
Data came from 1,000 recorded incidents of interpersonal aggression among 100 male children aged 7-15. The behavior was observed at randomly chosen times during a 12-month period. Only intense physical attacks on staff members or peers were included. The study excluded threats, brief physical exchanges, horseplay, and aggressive verbal behavior in an effort to focus on interpersonal aggression that clearly threatened the well-being of others. Data were analyzed three ways: through simple classification tables, through a functional category analysis, and through logistic regression analysis. The incidence of violence was greater among the younger boys. Staff members, particularly males, were more likely to be the victims of interpersonal violence, although aggressive behavior in general focused equally on peers and staff. Observable provocation, the child's age, and the choice of victim were important predictors within the logistic regression model, but the model had too low a predictive ability to be clinically useful. Analysis of incidents involving five particularly aggressive boys indicated the potential usefulness of multivariate descriptions of behavioral data for understanding the factors underlying violence in individual cases. Data tables and 32 references are supplied.