Prof Eisner co-authors three papers on children’s aggression and victimisation

Three recently published academic papers focus on children's aggressive tendencies and victimisation. Prof Manuel Eisner co-authored the papers with collaborators from different universities, including researchers affiliated to the Violence Research Centre.

• Developing and Validating an Experience Sampling Measure of Aggression: The Aggression-ES Scale by Tridip Jyoti Borah, Aja Louise Murray, Manuel Eisner and Irina Jugl

  Abstract
  Experience sampling methodologies are likely to play an important role in advancing our understanding of momentary influences on aggression, including short-term antecedent psychological states and situations. In this study, we evaluate whether a newly developed experiencing sampling measure of aggression, the Aggression Experience Sampler (Aggression-ES), provides a valid and reliable measure of aggression in experience sampling contexts. Participants were a convenience sample of 23 young adults recruited from the local University community. Data were collected using an experience sampling smartphone application over 8 days. They were analyzed using multilevel structural equation modeling. Our results support the within- and between-person reliability and the criterion validity of the Aggression-ES. The Aggression-ES represents a good choice of measure for use in experience sampling studies of aggression. Further work in other samples will help to provide further validity evidence for the measure.

• The effects of violent victimization on violent ideations in late adolescence. A longitudinal study by Manuel Eisner, Daniela Kaiser, Aja Murray, Amy Nivette, Denis Ribeaud, Jean-Louis van Gelder and Margit Averdijk

  Abstract
  Violent ideations are increasingly recognized as an important psychological process involved in aggressive and violent behavior. However, little is known about the processes that contribute to violent ideations. This paper therefore examines the effects of dispositional and situational factors on violent ideations during late adolescence. More specifically, it examines the extent to which violent victimization triggers violent ideations. Furthermore, it examines whether effects of violent victimization on violent ideations differ by gender. This study uses data from two waves of the Zurich Project on the Social Development from Childhood into Adulthood (z-proso; n= 1,465). Full-information maximum likelihood regressions are used to regress violent ideations at age 17 on social and psychological characteristics measured at age 15 and reports of previous year violent victimization measured at age 17. The results show that violent ideations at age 17 are strongly influenced by violent thoughts, aggressive behavior, violent media consumption, moral neutralization of violence, and internalizing symptoms measured at age 15. Moreover, victimization experiences increase the likelihood of violent ideations over and above pre-existing dispositions and prior violent ideations. The effects are stronger for adolescent males than for females.

• Violent Poly‐Victimization: The Longitudinal Patterns of Physical and Emotional Victimization Throughout Adolescence (11–17 Years) by Ingrid Obsuth, Katrin Mueller Johnson, Aja Louise Murray, Denis Ribeaud and Manuel Eisner 

  Abstract 
  In this study, we aimed to characterize developmental patterns of poly‐victimization in a normative sample of adolescents by applying longitudinal latent class analysis. Using the four most recent waves of data from the Zurich Project on the Social Development of Children and Youths (z‐proso), we identified three classes, or separate groups, of youths with distinct patterns of victimization from age 11 to 17. The largest class represented young people who were least likely to be victimized in any way and at any time. The two smaller groups represented different types of poly‐victimization—a non‐parental and a long‐term parental victimization group. Adolescents in the two groups differed both in the number as well as type of victimization that they experienced at different times. Moreover, class membership also had implications for different mental health outcomes.

Pictures: Aislinn Ritchie, Philippe Put