Impact of real life and media violence: Relationships between violence exposure, aggression, hostility, and empathy among high school students and detained adolescents

Adolescents in the United States today are among the population most at risk for experiencing violence. Adolescents also spend the vast majority of their free time engaged in media consumption, much of which includes increasingly violent content. Research has demonstrated that exposure to both real life and media violence is associated with increased hostility and aggressive behavior and decreased empathy. However, not all adolescents will be affected by violence exposure in the same way. Those who are exposed to personal and community violence, or who have a predisposition to aggressive behavior, may be more at risk for the negative effects of violence exposure.; The present study explored the effects of real life and media violence exposure on two populations, 216 high school students (109 girls) and 96 adolescents (13 girls) detained in a juvenile detention center. Participants completed seven self-report instruments measuring exposure to real life and media violence, psychopathology, hostile attributions, aggression, empathy, and social desirability. Due to the differences in the samples, results were analyzed separately.; Consistent with the hypotheses and the General Aggression Model, real life and media violence exposure was significantly associated with and significantly predicted increased aggression, increased hostile attributions, and decreased empathy for the high school student sample. Additionally, psychopathology was a significant mediating variable for the relationship between real life violence and aggression.; For the detained adolescents, exposure to real life violence was positively associated with aggression and psychopathology, but was not significantly associated with hostile attributions or empathy. Media violence was not associated with aggression, hostile attributions, or empathy. These results are not consistent with the hypotheses and may reflect desensitization processes or differences in aggressive practices among this high risk sample.; Results of this study suggest the need for further work in the areas of prevention and interventions for violence-exposed adolescents in order to reduce negative outcomes. Additionally, future research may wish to focus more attention on high risk individuals to better understand the process through which these adolescents react to violence exposure.