Normative Beliefs Approving of Aggression Moderate the Observational Learning of Weapon Use

A prominent theory accounting for the development and maintenance of aggressive behavior from childhood to adolescence is the social cognitive model, which holds that aggressive behavior is sustained over time through various context-dependent beliefs, biases, and schemas that emerge through repeated observation of aggressive social interactions. In this study, we provide a novel test of whether this model could also account for late adolescent and young adult weapon use.

We use integrative data analysis to combine information from two longitudinal studies of youth in urban areas (Study 1: N=426, 4 waves over 13 years, from ages 8 to 27; Study 2: N=200, 4 waves over 4 years, from ages 15 to 18; total N=626, 51% female, 56% Black). Data consists of both youth and parent report.

We show that normative beliefs supporting aggression promote the observational learning of weapon use in late adolescence and early adulthood. In addition, we show that these normative beliefs that promote the observational learning of weapon use in late adolescence and early adulthood are significantly stronger for people who 8-years earlier scored higher on callousness who held normative beliefs approving of retaliatory aggression at that time.

The results of this study suggest that interventions in childhood and adolescence that counteract normative beliefs approving of aggression and that reduce callousness will lessen the likelihood of the later imitation of observed neighborhood weapon violence by the intervened youth.