Interpersonal aggression in urban African American early adolescents: Application of the IBM

Adolescent aggression has been examined as a predictor for more serious forms of youth violent behavior (Roberto, Meyer, Boster & Roberto, 2003) It has been characterized into four principle dimensions -- overt, relational, instrumental, and reactive. The extant literature has focused primarily on overt physical manifestations of aggression and indirect relational acts among older teens and has not utilized health behavior change theory.;This study examined the applicability of the Integrated Behavior Model (Montano and Kasprzyk, 2008) for the prediction of aggressive and weapons carrying behaviors in an early adolescent sample of urban, low-income predominantly African American youth. The first aim was to examine whether an adolescent's attitudes and beliefs about aggressive behaviors, subjective norms derived from peer behaviors and parental expectations, and behavioral control in aggressive situations affect aggressive behaviors or weapons carrying behaviors. The second aim was to determine if the types of aggressive behaviors differed for early adolescent boys and girls. The third aim was to determine if the predictors of aggressive behaviors differed by gender.;A total of 452 sixth graders attending three Baltimore City middle schools on probation for the "persistently dangerous" classification under the No Child Left Behind Act completed baseline and follow-up questionnaires about predictors. For aggressive behaviors, significant gender differences were not found. Gender was found to be a significant predictor of weapon carrying status with girls being less likely to carry a weapon. Attitudes towards aggressive behaviors were not significant predictors. Association with deviant peers put youth at risk for manifesting aggressive behaviors and perception of parents as disapproving of fighting was a protective factor. Self control was found to be a significant protective factor for both aggressive and weapon carrying behaviors. Three patterns of aggressive behaviors were identified and examined in this sample -- relational, instrumental, and reactive. Boys were found to be more likely to manifest relational and instrumental aggression with no gender difference for reactive aggression. The predictors of aggressive behaviors were found to be different by gender and to vary by type of aggression.