ABSTRACT

The present work tests mediators of the link between adverse environmental factors and political violence support. Specifically, we investigated if depression and legal cynicism can mediate the association between lack of family cohesion, parental violence, and discrimination on one side and political violence support on the other side. Hypotheses were tested on a large and ethnically diverse dataset of German ninth graders, employing multi-group structural equation modeling. For both genders, we find that lack of family cohesion and parental violence were directly and/or indirectly related to political violence support. While legal cynicism mediated the link between lack of family cohesion and parental violence and political violence support, we found no moderating effect of depression in any of the tested models. These findings indicate that adolescents from dysfunctional families and with cynical attitudes towards legal norms may be at risk to endorse political violence. Prevention efforts that enhance family functioning, social-cognitive abilities, and the internalization of legal norms may deter youth from supporting political violence.

摘要

目前的工作测试了不利环境因素与政治暴力支持之间联系的中介。具体来说，我们调查了抑郁症和法律犬儒主义是否可以调解缺乏家庭凝聚力、父母暴力和歧视与政治暴力支持之间的关联。假设在德国九年级学生的大型且种族多样化的数据集上进行了测试，采用多组结构方程建模。对于两性，我们发现缺乏家庭凝聚力和父母暴力与政治暴力支持直接和/或间接相关。虽然法律犬儒主义调解了缺乏家庭凝聚力与父母暴力和政治暴力支持之间的联系，但我们在任何测试模型中都没有发现抑郁症的调节作用。这些发现表明，来自功能失调家庭和对法律规范持愤世嫉俗态度的青少年可能面临支持政治暴力的风险。增强家庭功能、社会认知能力和法律规范内化的预防工作可能会阻止青年支持政治暴力。