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01-09-2007

Mediators of the Development and Prevention of Violent Behavior

Authors: Robert J. Jagers, Antonio A. Morgan-Lopez, Terry-Lee Howard, Dorothy C. Browne, Brian R. Flay, Aban Aya Coinvestigators

Published in: Prevention Science | Issue 3/2007

Abstract

The purpose of this investigation was to determine if the Aban Aya Youth Project, a culturally grounded intervention, produced differences in changes over time in core intervening variables (i.e., communal value orientation, empathy, violence avoidance efficacy beliefs) and whether these variables mediated intervention effects on the development of youth violent behavior. Fifth grade cohorts at 12 schools were randomly assigned to one of two intervention conditions or an attention placebo control condition and followed longitudinally through eighth grade. A total of 668 students (49% male) participated in the study. Mediation analyses suggested that both program conditions (as compared to the control condition) led to steeper increases over time in empathy which, in turn were related to reductions in the likelihood of violent behavior over time. No other significant program effects were detected, although changes over time in violence avoidance efficacy were associated with reduced likelihood of violent behavior. Findings are discussed in terms of theory development, program development and points of refinement of the Aban Aya Youth Project and implications for future research.

For consistency with other published work on the Aban Aya intervention on overall program effects (i.e., that did not assess mediation), we initially included intervention by gender interaction effects on mediators and outcomes and found that a) the interventions did not function significantly differently across gender in their direct effects on violent behavior after controlling for the mediators (as had been found previously outside the context of mediation) and b) there were no significant gender differences in program efficacy on the mediators examined in this study.

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Title: Mediators of the Development and Prevention of Violent Behavior
Authors: Robert J. Jagers
Antonio A. Morgan-Lopez
Terry-Lee Howard
Dorothy C. Browne
Brian R. Flay
Aban Aya Coinvestigators
Publication date: 01-09-2007
Publisher: Springer US
Published in: Prevention Science / Issue 3/2007
Print ISSN: 1389-4986
Electronic ISSN: 1573-6695
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-007-0067-4

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Mediators of the Development and Prevention of Violent Behavior

Abstract

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