Citation

Blitstein JL, Murray DM, Lytle LA, Birnbaum AS, Perry CL. Health Educ. Behav. 2005; 32(2): 175-194.

Affiliation

RTI International, Center for Health Promotion Research, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina 27709, USA. jblitstein@rti.org

Copyright

(Copyright © 2005, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/1090198104269516

PMID

15749965

Abstract

The authors assessed a cohort of 2,335 students from the Minneapolis, Minnesota, area to identify predictors of violent behavior and to determine whether the predictors varied by gender. The sample was 76% White; boys and girls were equally represented. The majority lived with two parents. A measure of violent behavior collected at the end of the eighth-grade year (2000) was entered into Poisson regression against baseline data collected at the beginning of the seventh-grade year (1998). Predictors of violent behavior influencing both boys and girls included depressive symptoms, perceived invulnerability to negative future events, paternal nonauthoritative behavior, and drinking alcohol. Additional predictors of violent behavior specific to girls included both risk and protective factors.