Although considerable research has examined factors that influence social-cognitive processes related to aggression, few studies have examined the factors that influence adolescents’ appraisal of the effectiveness of responses, particularly nonviolent alternatives to aggression. This study addressed that gap by examining patterns of adolescents’ perceived effectiveness of nonviolent and aggressive responses to hypothetical problem situations and their relations with aggression, victimization, and individual and contextual risk factors. The participants were a predominantly African American (90%) sample of 1469 students (55% female; mean age = 12.7 years; age range = 11–16) from three middle schools who completed measures of perceived effectiveness, self-efficacy, aggression and victimization, and contextual factors. Ratings of adolescents’ physical, relational, and verbal aggression and victimization, nonviolent and prosocial behavior were also obtained from their teachers. Latent class analysis identified four subgroups of adolescents including distinguishes effective, mixed support, everything works, and nothing works. Subgroups differed on measures of aggression, victimization, prosocial and nonviolent behavior, self-efficacy for nonviolence, witnessing community violence, and parents’ and peers’ support for nonviolence and aggression. The findings underscore the importance of designing violence prevention programs to target the unique needs of subgroups of adolescents.

尽管大量研究已经研究了影响与侵略相关的社会认知过程的因素，但很少有研究研究了影响青少年对应对效果评估的因素，尤其是非暴力替代行为。这项研究通过检查青少年对假设问题情况的非暴力和积极反应的有效性以及与攻击，受害以及个人和环境风险因素的关系，来解决这一差距。参加者主要是来自三所中学的1469名学生（90％）的样本（15％的女性； 55％的女性；平均年龄= 12.7岁；年龄范围= 11-16），他们完成了感知效率，自我效能感，攻击性和受害和背景因素。还从他们的老师那里获得了青少年在身体，关系和言语上的侵略和受害，非暴力和亲社会行为的等级。潜在类别分析确定了四个青少年亚组，包括区分有效的，混合的支持，一切正常，并没有什么作品。亚组在侵略，受害，亲社会和非暴力行为，对非暴力的自我效能，目击社区暴力以及父母和同伴对非暴力和侵略的支持等方面存在差异。调查结果强调了设计预防暴力计划以针对青少年亚组的独特需求的重要性。