Examines the portrayal of women and the use of violent themes in 33 popular video games. The analysis reveals that traditional gender roles and violence are central to many games. There were no female characters in 41% of games with characters, and women were portrayed as sex objects in 28% of these games. (SLD)

The number of adolescent firesetters increases every year; therefore it is essential that mental health professionals be aware of the characteristics of firesetters. Describes the individual and environmental factors that relate to the etiology and levels of firesetting. Specifically, discusses the different types of firesetters and their…

There is a definite distinction between violence and aggression that must be recognized before solutions to problems can be addressed. Some ways to deal with violence and aggression are teachers who invest time and energy in student relationships, opportunities for self-expression and physical activity, real-world activities, and cooperative…

Describes how one elementary school focused on school security in this age of increased school violence, discussing the worries that parents have about safety (which often overshadow concerns about academics) and explaining that even though youth violence has decreased overall, parents must feel secure in sending their children to school. (SM)

The aim of this study was to present and initially test a model of escalation to verbal and physical aggression among Israeli youths. Stratified sampling was used to obtain data from 799 students in the 7th, 8th, and 9th grades of junior high schools in a northern Israeli city and its suburbs. A structural equation model (SEM) analysis confirmed…

This article extends the work of Kellam, Ling, Merisca, Brown and Ialongo (1998) by applying a mathematical model of competition between children to peer contagion in the aggressive behaviors of elementary school students. Nonlinearity in the relationship between group aggression and individual aggression at 2-year follow-up is present. Consistent…

Children's immediate aggressive responding to exposure to marital conflict was examined. Participants were 108 families with 8- to 16-year-old children (53 boys, 55 girls), with diary records of children's reactions to marital conflict in the home completed by 103 mothers (n = 578 records) and 95 fathers (n = 377 records) during a 15-day period.…

Examined the association of anger experience and two types of normative beliefs with physical aggression and nonaggressive antisocial behavior in 361 juvenile offenders and 206 high school students in Russia. All participants were male and ranged in age from 14 to 18 years. Higher frequency of aggressive acts was significantly associated with…

Clinic and forensic studies have reported high rates of language impairments in conduct- disordered and incarcerated youth. In community samples followed to early adolescence, speech and language impairments have been linked to attention deficits and internalizing problems, rather than conduct problems, delinquency, or aggression. This study…

Young children's beliefs about the relationship between gender and aggression were examined across 3 studies (N121). In Study 1, preschoolers (ages 3 to 5) described relational aggression as the most common form of aggression among girls and physical aggression as the most common form among boys. In Study 2, preschoolers and a comparison group of…

Bullying is a destructive behaviour that peaks in early adolescence and causes or contributes to myriad negative outcomes. There is little understanding of what the experience of being bullied means to those who endure it. This study attempts to elucidate that meaning. A phenomenological approach is used to gather information from three adolescent…

The research goals were to use the constructs of harm and intent to quantify the severity of aggression in the real-world setting of the bar/club, to describe the range of aggressive behaviors and their relationship to harm and intent, and to examine gender differences in the form and severity of aggression. Systematic observations were conducted…

This article provides an "autism vignette" and then poses an evaluative question to several autism specialists, documenting their varied responses to the scenario and question posed. A 13-year-old boy with autism and severe mental retardation presented to the inpatient psychiatric unit due to a recent increase in agitation and physical aggression.…

Viewing media aggression can be a risk factor for the long-term well being of viewers, and heroes have been targeted as a major risk factor in this relationship because they commit justified acts of aggression. However, little is known about the specific aspects of heroic conduct that viewers find worthy of emulation. We examined US and Taiwanese…

This article examines a measure of received emotional, physical, and sexual aggression within the family: the Scale of Negative Family Interactions (SNFI). Unlike traditional familial violence scales that measure parental aggression alone, the SNFI simultaneously measures sibling violence for a more comprehensive examination of familial…