Objective:Higher rates of intimate partner violence (IPV) have been documented among veterans, compared to those who are currently serving. However, no known studies have examined associations between IPV and transition-related stressors among couples who have recently separated from military service. This study aimed to address this gap by examining associations between military status, transition-related stressors, and IPV. Method:Using survey data from the Millennium Cohort Family Study, we examined associations between U.S. service members' military status (currently serving: n = 1,581; veteran: n = 1,731), IPV, and transition-related stressors (financial strain, social support, housing instability, and employment status). Transition-related stressors were then tested as potential mediators in the relationship between military status and IPV. Results:Veteran status was associated with a 71% increase in the odds of IPV; veteran couples had greater financial strain and were more likely to work part-time or not be employed relative to their currently serving counterparts, and veterans had lower levels of perceived social support. Couples' financial strain and perceived social support partially mediated associations between military status and IPV. Conclusions:These results suggest that primary targets for IPV prevention include strengthening couples' financial well-being and bolstering perceived social support among currently serving military personnel and veterans. Public Significance Statement:Veteran couples had higher rates of intimate partner violence compared with couples who are currently serving in the military. Stressors associated with separation from military service-financial strain, social support, and underemployment-were associated with, and partially accounted for, elevated intimate partner violence among veterans.
Objective: Violence prevention requires risk stratification approaches that move beyond single-dimension severity models. Current assessment frameworks may overlook individuals whose violence risk is context-dependent rather than trait-driven. This study applied a person-centered framework to identify distinct violence risk profiles and their associated intervenable psychological process domains, informing targeted prevention strategies. Method: U.K. adults (N = 791; 54% female; M-age = 45.4 years) completed a cross-sectional online survey. Latent profile analysis identified subgroups characterized by distinct configurations across these violence-relevant indicators, including trait aggression, violent behavior history, situational violent responding, and antisocial behavior. External validation examined profile differences on cognitive distortions, emotion dysregulation, impulsivity, and intermittent explosive disorder screening status. Results: Three risk profiles emerged. The high-risk profile (22.1%) showed cross-domain elevation across all indicators. The moderate profile (41.5%) showed near-average trait levels but elevated situational violent responding. The low-risk profile (36.4%) showed uniformly low indicators. External validation showed significant profile differences in cognitive distortions, emotion dysregulation, and impulsivity, with cognitive distortions showing the strongest differentiation. Intermittent explosive disorder prevalence was highest in the high-risk profile (9.1%), followed by the moderate- (4.9%) and low-risk profiles (3.8%). The high-risk profile had significantly higher odds of intermittent explosive disorder than the low-risk profile (OR = 2.53, 95% CI [1.13, 5.65]). Conclusions: Violence risk in the community population is configurational. The situationally escalation-prone moderate profile highlights the need to assess context-dependent risk beyond trait aggression. Cognitive distortions and situational response patterns may represent profile-specific targets for stratified violence prevention.
Objective:Violence is a common experience among U.S. youth, with exposure and associated con-sequences being disproportionately high among urban youth. Mentoring can promote factors that protectyouth from violence. Evaluations of youth mentoring programs indicate that they can positively impactviolence-related outcomes. However,findings are variable, and the effects are typically small, making itimportant to identify underlying mechanisms of effect and how programs can more fully and consistentlyactivate them. The present study uses in-depth interviews to advance understanding of conversationsbetween adult mentors and their youth mentees about violence.Method:Participants were 26 adults whocurrently or recently mentored an African American youth (ages 12-14) through a formal program in theBaltimore/Washington, DC, area. Mentors participated in interviews about conversations they had withtheir mentee about their mentee's personal experience with violence, including violence within theneighborhood, gang violence, violence at home, and violence in dating relationships.Results:About twothirds of participants reported discussing violence with their mentees, with physicalfights, family violence,and dating/relationship violence being prominent topics. Among mentors who did not discuss violence,common reasons were that their mentees had not brought it up, the mentees were not interested in talkingabout it, or the mentees were not personally involved with violence.Conclusions:With training andsupport, mentors may provide a safe space for mentees to discuss experiences, thoughts, and fears related toviolence, which can lead to safer, healthier individuals and communities
Objective: Who is more willing to burn trash containers, erect barricades, and protest violently to defend science? Is it those who are sure that they are in favor of science or those who are uncertain? Traditional research suggests that those most certain in their attitudes toward science would presumably be more likely to engage in attitude-consistent behaviors (i.e., attitude-behavior consistency). The present research aimed to study whether for extreme actions and situations, uncertain attitudes can be more impactful in determining attitude-behavior consistency, potentially reversing the typical effect of attitude certainty. Method: Across three studies, participants' attitudes toward a science-related topic (climate change; Study 1), science itself (Study 2), and scientists (Study 3) were assessed. Then, certainty in those attitudes was either measured or manipulated. Next, extremity was either measured or manipulated. Finally, several outcomes were assessed as dependent variables, including willingness to violently defend attitudes toward science and willingness to fight to support scientists. Results: As predicted, for low-extremity conditions, higher certainty enhanced willingness to engage in attitude-aligned behaviors, replicating prior research. By contrast, for more extreme conditions (violent behaviors), lower certainty increased attitude-behavior correspondence, introducing a novel finding in this domain. Conclusions: Extremity moderated the effect of attitude certainty.
Objective: Cyberbullying is repeated aggression against vulnerable targets via information communication technologies. Prior studies suggest that protecting vulnerable others motivates bystanders to aggressively defend others against bullying. However, recent research on third-party punishment suggests that deterring harm to oneself regulates bystanders' intent to cyberbully a transgressor who has been toxic to others. We investigated this possibility drawing on the neutralization theory of hatred. Method: Study 1 (N = 199 Chinese adults) selected two scenarios where a transgressor harmed a victim or victims unrelated to participants and tested the extent to which potential cyberbullies perceived perpetrating cyberbullying as personally costly. Study 2 (N = 400 Chinese adults) tested the hypotheses derived from the neutralization theory with the two pilot-tested scenarios. Results: In Study 1, participants perceived perpetrating cyberbullying as personally costly. In Study 2, participants perceived a transgressor who was more (vs. less) toxic to others as negatively valuing themselves-and hated and intended to cyberbully the transgressor-more strongly. These effects of transgressor toxicity were significantly stronger when participants' sense of shared fate with the victim(s) the transgressor previously harmed was relatively low. Further analyses confirmed that perceived negative valuation and/or hate mediated the effect of toxicity on intent of cyberbullying perpetration when perceived shared fate was low. Conclusions: Our results helped identify additional risk factors of cyberbullying perpetration and clarify the psychological mechanisms underlying certain forms of cyberbullying perpetration as third-party punishment. Deterring harm to oneself may motivate cyberbullying perpetration in addition to and even instead of protecting vulnerable others.
Objective: Open-source documents are a valuable asset to study radicalization processes. While previous research has focused on descriptive or behavioral accounts, often lacking theoretical integration, this study adopts a multitheory approach combining the devoted actor model and the 3N model of radicalization. Our aim was to identify the key psychosocial mechanisms and behaviors involved in jihadist radicalization and how they interrelate. Method: We examined all Spanish court rulings involving jihadist terrorism cases from 1990 to 2022 (N = 687) and analyzed the cases of individuals sentenced to prison (n = 211) using content analysis and network analysis. Results: Four first-order categories were identified: intergroup conflict narrative, religious narrative, network, and intentions and behaviors. The analysis revealed the complex nature of jihadist radicalization, with all psychosocial and behavioral components strongly interconnected. The results highlight the relevant role of violence-justifying, sacralizing and absolutist narratives, identity fusion-related mechanisms, and engagement with radical propaganda in the jihadist radicalization process. In addition, the connection between radical propaganda and violence-justifying narratives emerged as the strongest within the network. Conclusions: Our findings emphasize the importance and interconnection between behaviors and psychosocial processes, especially network and narrative components, as central aspects of the radicalization process. Moreover, this research entails practical implications for risk assessment and intervention strategies, offering evidence-based indicators to inform prevention efforts in the context of jihadist terrorism.
Objective: Bullying is a form of peer aggression that leads to serious psychological and emotional consequences for adolescents. The main objective was to identify distinct latent profiles of bullying involvement, analyze their differences across key emotional and family variables, and evaluate a predictive model in which emotional insecurity within the family system and emotion dysregulation account for variations in bullying involvement and child-to-parent violence. Method: The sample comprised 691 adolescents aged 13-17 years (51.8% boys). Latent class analysis and structural equation modeling were used to examine bullying profiles and associations among variables. Results: Three distinct latent bullying involvement profiles were identified. Findings indicated that emotional insecurity, emotion dysregulation, and child-to-parent violence were significantly associated with bullying involvement. The most notable result was that emotional insecurity plays a key role in bullying involvement both directly and indirectly through emotion dysregulation. A moderate positive association between bullying and child-to-parent violence was found. Compared with males, females showed higher levels of emotional insecurity and emotion dysregulation and lower levels of bullying perpetration. Conclusion: The findings highlight emotional insecurity as a crucial mechanism linking family and peer contexts, reinforcing the ecological view that family dynamics shape adolescents' emotion regulation and social adjustment. Interventions should therefore integrate family-based and emotional components to effectively prevent bullying and related forms of violence.
Objective: Extremist violence reflects targeted violence rooted in ideologies that justify such acts to redress grievances. Although social media engagement is frequently examined in relation to extremist ideology, limited research has assessed how online engagement, authoritarian beliefs, and pro-violence attitudes relate to the severity and persistence of targeted behaviors. This study examined relationships among social media engagement, left-wing authoritarianism, right-wing authoritarianism, the militant extremist mindset (MEM), and patterns of targeted behavior. Method: A sample of 1,675 U.S. college students completed an online survey assessing time spent on social media, psychological involvement with social media, authoritarian beliefs (left-wing authoritarianism and right-wing authoritarianism), and pro-violence attitudes measured by MEM. A subsample (N = 534) reported grievance-driven concerning behaviors classified as nonapproach, nonviolent approach, or physically violent approach. Correlational analyses, analyses of variance, and multivariate regression models examined predictors of pro-violence attitudes and behavioral severity and persistence. Results: Left-wing authoritarianism and right-wing authoritarianism were negatively correlated, but both were positively associated with MEM, indicating that pro-violence attitudes reflected belief intensity rather than ideological direction. Social media engagement was also positively associated with MEM. Individuals reporting violent approach behaviors endorsed more intense MEM attitudes. In multivariate models, MEM was associated with both violent approach behavior and more repetitive and varied intrusive behavior. Conclusions: Pro-violence attitudes indexed by MEM were associated with both the severity and persistence of targeted behaviors, whereas authoritarian orientation alone showed more variable associations. Social media engagement was associated with pro-violence attitudes, supporting grievance-focused approaches to the assessment and management of violence.
Objective: Nonconsensual dissemination of intimate images (NCDII) is a form of image-based sexual abuse which involves the sharing of intimate sexual images of another person without their consent. Despite the impact that this form of NCDII has on victims-including shame, humiliation, posttraumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression, and suicide-little is known about the psychological mechanisms that may promote this behavior. Method: The goal of the present study was to extend previous findings on the relationship between NCDII proclivity, enjoyment, and approval with the Dark Tetrad personality traits while also exploring the role of online disinhibition, a theoretical framework for understanding digital contexts in online deviance. Results: All four Dark Tetrad traits and select components of online disinhibition (asynchronicity, dissociative imagination, and minimization of authority) were significantly related to NCDII attitudes. However, none were consistent predictors of the three NCDII measures. Asynchronicity and dissociative imagination did, however, consistently predict across NCDII items, although the former was in the opposite direction expected. Conclusions: These results emphasize the importance of context (i.e., the characteristics of the online environment) in understanding why individuals may be inclined to engage in or support antisocial behaviors. Implications of these findings are discussed.
Objective: Although callous-unemotional (CU) traits and aggression are consistently associated, the bidirectional, function-specific, and gender-difference developmental dynamics remain poorly understood. This study investigated longitudinal associations between CU traits and proactive aggression (PA) versus reactive aggression (RA) using random-intercept cross-lagged panel models. Method: A sample of Chinese adolescents (N = 1,011; 49.0% boys; M-age = 15.40, SD = 0.60) was assessed across four waves at 6-month intervals. Random intercept cross-lagged panel models were employed to disentangle stable between-person differences from within-person fluctuations over time, and multigroup analyses were conducted to examine potential gender differences. Results: At the between-person level, CU traits were positively associated with both PA and RA, with a stronger association observed between CU traits and PA. At the within-person level, significant positive bidirectional cross-lagged effects emerged only between CU traits and PA: higher CU traits predicted higher subsequent PA, and higher PA predicted higher subsequent CU traits; no cross-lagged effects were found between CU traits and RA. Gender differences were observed only in the path from CU traits to PA, with this effect being stronger for boys than for girls. Conclusions: These findings highlight a function-specific, bidirectional reinforcing cycle between CU traits and PA, emphasizing the importance of targeting proactive, instrumental aggression in prevention and intervention efforts for youth exhibiting elevated CU traits.
Objective: Rising immigration and demographic changes in Western countries have contributed to political polarization, as well as hateful and violent behaviors toward Muslims and other minority groups. This study examines the factors that render some individuals more likely to engage in such behaviors. Method: Using a nationally representative U.S. survey, we apply the Hate Behavior Scale, a newly developed tool to measure intentions to engage in anti-Muslim discrimination and violence. We explore how Hate Behavior Scale dimensions relate to risk domains outlined in an existing risk analysis framework, considering how risk and protective factors interact across levels of analysis. Results: Perceived threats are linked to greater intentions to engage in discriminatory behavior, belligerent violence, and defensive violence toward Muslims. These effects are intensified among individuals with higher legal cynicism, social alienation, low self-control, criminal and violent tendencies, exposure to extremist settings, and those undergoing a proximal crisis. No moderation effects were observed for nonviolent hateful behaviors. Conclusions: These findings highlight that the risk of engaging in grievance-fueled violence arises from the interplay of individual, situational, and contextual risk factors. The influence of perceived grievances is highly context-dependent, meaning their impact can vary significantly from case to case. Understanding this variability is critical as it emphasizes the need to assess not only the presence of grievances but also how they interact with personal vulnerabilities as well as situational and contextual factors. Together, these insights advance our understanding of who is more "at-risk" of engaging in hateful or violent behaviors and support more nuanced approaches to risk assessment and prevention.
Objective: Previous studies have shown that schadenfreude is associated with bullying and cyberbullying perpetration and that moral disengagement is related to these types of online and offline behaviors. However, it is still unknown whether the two types of schadenfreude, together with different levels of bullying and cyberbullying, can lead to the formation of differentiated profiles among students and whether moral disengagement can predict such profile membership over time. Thus, the present study set out to examine these objectives using latent profile analyses and regression models. Method: A total of 1,812 primary and secondary schoolchildren, ages 10-17 (50% female; M-age = 13.26, SD = 1.54), were surveyed in a two-time longitudinal study separated by a 1-year interval. Results: The results confirmed the existence of three distinct profiles based on response patterns: "high schadenfreude and aggression," "high justice-based schadenfreude and low aggression," and "low schadenfreude and aggression." In addition, it was found that students with higher victim attribution scores were almost four times more likely to belong to the first of these profiles, characterized by schadenfreude with aggression, 1 year later. Conclusions: These results highlight the importance of working with schoolchildren on the development of social, emotional, and moral competencies that will enable them to make decisions in accordance with the ethics of care.
Objective: Referee abuse has emerged as a growing concern in sport, yet its prevalence and mental health consequences remain underexamined, particularly in amateur contexts. Accordingly, we examined self-reported experiences of physical and verbal abuse among soccer referees and their associations with anxiety and depression symptoms. Method: Participants were 1,183 soccer referees (66.8% White; 80.8% men, 17.6% women, 1.6% gender diverse) from Ontario, Saskatchewan, and British Columbia, Canada. Referees reported exposure to physical and verbal abuse from parents, coaches, players, and spectators and completed measures of anxiety (Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale) and depression (Patient Health Questionnaire). Results: Abuse was widespread: 34.9% of referees reported experiencing physical abuse, and 94.2% reported verbal abuse while officiating. Contrary to hypotheses, women and racialized referees did not experience higher rates of abuse than men or White referees; men reported higher levels of physical abuse than women. Verbal abuse was positively associated with symptoms of anxiety and depression, whereas physical abuse was associated with depression but not anxiety, after controlling for age, gender, and race/ethnicity. Although gender did not significantly moderate associations between abuse and mental health outcomes, the effect sizes for verbal abuse were larger for women. Sensitivity analyses revealed a clear dose-response pattern, with referees reporting more frequent abuse exhibiting significantly higher anxiety and depression symptoms, particularly for frequent verbal abuse. Conclusions: Referee abuse in Canadian amateur soccer is both pervasive and psychologically consequential. These findings underscore the need for system-level policies and interventions to improve referees' safety and protect their mental health across all levels of sport.
Objective: This research examines how neutralization techniques influence third-party judgments in situations of coercive control, focusing on perpetrator exoneration, victim-blaming, and minimization of behavior. Method: Across two studies, participants read the testimony of a victim describing coercive control by her partner. In Study 1 (N = 561), they were then assigned to conditions in which the perpetrator either denied responsibility or denied the behavior, compared to a control condition (victim testimony only). In Study 2 (N = 397), all participants were exposed to a perpetrator's testimony, which was either nonneutralizing, denied responsibility, denied behavior, or combined both strategies. Results: Neutralization techniques significantly influenced third-party evaluations by increasing the exoneration of the perpetrator and minimizing the perpetrator's behavior. Denial of responsibility had a broader and stronger impact than denial of behavior, but both forms of denial reduced approval of sanctions against the perpetrator. Myths about domestic violence did not show a moderating effect. Conclusions: Our research provides new insights into how neutralization techniques operate in the context of coercive control. Although our findings do not reveal a reversal in favor of the perpetrator, they do point to the risk of increased passivity in the face of allegations when neutralizing discourse is employed. These results highlight the need to recognize coercive control as a framework that captures power dynamics, enabling clearer distinctions between the victim's narrative and the perpetrator's justifications. Raising awareness of neutralization techniques and coercive control is crucial to reinforce institutional and societal responses and prevent secondary victimization.
Objective: The present study tested whether school-level composition of immigrant versus nonimmigrant adolescents explains variability in violence victimization among youth, with a consideration of known individual-, school-, and country-level factors. It was hypothesized that a higher proportion of immigrant students at school would be associated with increased violence victimization among adolescents. Method: This study analyzed nationally representative data from the Second International Self-Report Delinquency Study based on 28 countries, from seventh-, eighth-, and ninth-grade adolescents (N = 66,859). It employed multilevel or hierarchical linear modeling in R to test person-context interactions to better understand the extent to which school-level composition of immigrants was associated with violence victimization among adolescents. A Bayesian multilevel imputation method was used to handle missing data, the current state-of-the-art for handling missing data in three-level nested data structures, which imputes missing values at both individual and contextual levels in a Bayesian model-based estimation that preserves the nested data structure. Results: Findings provided evidence that a higher proportion of immigrant students at school was positively associated with violence victimization, after accounting for a number of known individual-level (age, sex, socioeconomic status, immigrant status, low self-control, trauma, discrimination, parental closeness, and parental monitoring), school-level (higher proportion of immigrant students at school, type of school, and school disorganization), and country-level (homicide rates, migration rates, and poverty rates) correlates. Conclusions: Findings underscore the need for addressing both individual- and school-level contextual factors in reducing adolescents' risk for violence victimization. Public Significance Statement The study tested whether the proportion of immigrant students at school was associated with violence victimization risk across multiple countries. Schools with higher proportions of immigrant students increased risk for violence victimization, net the effects by individual, school, and country factors. The findings highlight the importance of supportive school environments and strong family relationships in reducing risk for violence victimization.
Objective: Although childhood abuse has been linked to elevated bullying perpetration, empirical findings remain heterogeneous, and the moderating landscape is incompletely mapped. This study provides a quantitative synthesis of the association between childhood abuse and bullying. Method: A three-level meta-analysis was conducted integrating 95 independent studies (192 effect sizes, 140,926 participants). Nine potential moderators-participant sex, age, cultural context, research design, childhood abuse type, bullying type, publication type, childhood abuse measure, and bullying measure-were systematically examined. Results: Childhood abuse showed a significant positive association with bullying (r = .32, 95% confidence interval [0.29, 0.35]). The magnitude of this effect was moderated by participant sex, age, and the specific form of maltreatment experienced. Conclusions: The findings corroborate childhood abuse as a risk factor for later bullying behavior, underscoring the need for early screening and targeted policy or educational interventions in community and school settings to safeguard children's well-being and forestall future bullying.
Objective: Two emotional states seem to drive perpetual violence: reactive aggression, that is, feeling threatened, humiliated, and experiencing strong emotions such as anger and fear, and appetitive aggression, that is, feeling excited, lustful, and dominant while committing violence. Risk factors driving this bipedal model of aggression include childhood maltreatment, social rejection, and a desire for control in violent environments. We aimed to test the importance of these risk factors for predicting sexual violence in postconflict regions. Method: We conducted a study with 91 Burundian males (M-age = 25.6, SDage = 4.4) from poor and violence-affected districts of Bujumbura. In semistructured interviews, we assessed childhood maltreatment, parental rejection, traumatic experiences, previously perpetrated violence, trauma-related mental health symptoms, and appetitive aggression. Results: Sexual violence was categorized into (a) any skin contact (e.g., kissing, fondling, penetration) and (b) penetration only. Conditioned random forests assessing relative variable importance in predicting sexual violence perpetration identified previously perpetrated violence, experienced traumatic life events, and childhood sexual abuse as key predictors in both models. Logistical regression analyses using predictors of above-median importance explained 51.5% and 34.7% of the variance, respectively. Childhood sexual abuse and previously perpetrated violence emerged as the strongest risk factors, while adaptive shame coping reduced the risk of perpetration. Conclusions: The findings highlight the cycle of violence, emphasizing the impact of childhood sexual abuse on sexual violence perpetration. Furthermore, factors linked to both reactive and appetitive aggression seem to contribute to sexual violence perpetration. Last, reinforcing adaptive shame coping might be a target for prevention.
