Problematic behaviors and favorable attitudes toward violence in children and adolescents

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationships between children's and adolescents' problematic behaviors and attitudes toward violence. Participants were 458 elementary school children (fifth-and sixth-graders), 521 junior high school students (first- and second-graders), and 1,164 high school students (first- and second-graders). They completed the questionnaire that consisted of three self-rating scales in order to assess their witnessing, desiring to experience, and making a judgment of problematic behaviors, and that consisted of a self-rating scale in order to assess attitudes toward violence such as favorable and unfavorable. The results showed that children and adolescents who reported favorable attitudes toward violence would be more likely to witness peers' problematic behaviors, and desire to experience problematic behaviors than those who reported unfavorable attitudes toward violence. Furthermore, those in the former group tended not to judge others' problematic behaviors wrong