Research Center for Group Dynamics, Institute for Social Research, The University of Michigan, 426 Thompson St., Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1248, USA.
Department of Psychology, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH 43403, USA.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2023 Jun 6;20(12):6067. doi: 10.3390/ijerph20126067.
Chronic exposure to ethnic-political and war violence has deleterious effects throughout childhood. Some youths exposed to war violence are more likely to act aggressively afterwards, and some are more likely to experience post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTS symptoms). However, the concordance of these two outcomes is not strong, and it is unclear what discriminates between those who are at more risk for one or the other. Drawing on prior research on desensitization and arousal and on recent social-cognitive theorizing about how high anxious arousal to violence can inhibit aggression, we hypothesized that those who characteristically experience anxious arousal when exposed to violence should display a lower increase in aggression after exposure to war violence but the same or a higher increase in PTS symptoms compared to those low in anxious arousal. To test this hypothesis, we analyzed data from our 4-wave longitudinal interview study of 1051 Israeli and Palestinian youths (ages at Wave 1 ranged from 8 to 14, and at Wave 4 from 15-22). We used the 4 waves of data on aggression, PTS symptoms, and exposure to war violence, along with additional data collected during Wave 4 on the anxious arousal participants experienced while watching a very violent film unrelated to war violence ( = 337). Longitudinal analyses revealed that exposure to war violence significantly increased both the risk of subsequent aggression and PTS symptoms. However, anxious arousal in response to seeing the unrelated violent film (measured from skin conductance and self-reports of anxiety) moderated the relation between exposure to war violence and subsequent psychological and behavioral outcomes. Those who experienced greater anxious arousal while watching the violent film showed a weaker positive relation between amount of exposure to war violence and aggression toward their peers but a stronger positive relation between amount of exposure to war violence and PTS symptoms.
慢性暴露于种族政治和战争暴力会对整个儿童期产生有害影响。一些接触过战争暴力的年轻人此后更有可能表现出攻击性，而一些人更有可能经历创伤后应激症状 (PTS 症状)。然而，这两种结果的一致性并不强，也不清楚哪些人更有可能面临一种或另一种风险。根据先前关于脱敏和唤醒的研究以及最近关于高焦虑唤醒对暴力如何抑制攻击的社会认知理论，我们假设那些在接触暴力时通常会经历焦虑唤醒的人在接触战争暴力后表现出的攻击性增加较低，但 PTS 症状的增加与那些低焦虑唤醒的人相同或更高。为了验证这一假设，我们分析了我们对 1051 名以色列和巴勒斯坦年轻人进行的 4 波纵向访谈研究的数据（第 1 波的年龄从 8 岁到 14 岁，第 4 波的年龄从 15 岁到 22 岁）。我们使用了关于攻击性、PTS 症状和接触战争暴力的 4 波数据，以及在第 4 波期间收集的关于参与者在观看与战争暴力无关的非常暴力电影时所经历的焦虑唤醒的额外数据（n=337）。纵向分析显示，接触战争暴力显著增加了随后发生攻击行为和 PTS 症状的风险。然而，对观看无关暴力电影的反应中的焦虑唤醒（通过皮肤电导和自我报告的焦虑来衡量）调节了接触战争暴力与随后的心理和行为结果之间的关系。那些在观看暴力电影时经历更大焦虑唤醒的人，在接触战争暴力与对同伴的攻击性之间的关系较弱，但在接触战争暴力与 PTS 症状之间的关系较强。
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