Exposure to violence and interpersonal conflict resolution tactics displayed among a group of high school learners in the Stellenbosch District

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The consequences of violence on South African youth are of major concernfor the country's future. The purpose of.this research was to study adolescentsfrom disadvantaged communities' exposure to violence and their use ofconflict resolution tactics. The role of gender in mediating the type and thesetting of violence exposure and conflict resolution tactics is also investigated.The sample consisted of 426 adolescent learners from three schools in theStellenbosch district. The questionnaire comprised of the Screen for.Adolescent Violence Exposure (SA VE) (Hastings & Kelley, 1997) and theConflict Tactics Scales (CTS) (Straus, 1979), which were administered to 187male and 239 female adolescents with a mean age of 15.9 years. The samplereported. being exposed to moderately high levels of indirect violence in thecommunity. This exposure to violence was significantly correlated with theiruse of aggressive and violent conflict resolution tactics. Significant negativecorrelations were found between exposure to violence at school and reasoningtactics. Results from the Analyses of Variance indicated that males were moreexposed to traumatic violence at school and in the community, while femaleswere exposed to more physical/verbal abuse at home. Gender differencesfurther showed that males displayed stronger positive correlations betweenexposure to indirect violence, especially in the community, and verbalaggression. Females displayed stronger positive correlations betweenexposure to traumatic violence and physical/verbal abuse, especially at home,and the use of violent conflict resolution tactics. The study shows thatadolescents exposed to high levels of violence are more likely to displayaggressive and violent conflict resolution tactics.Gender differences for the high exposure group showed that males displayedstronger positive correlations between exposure to Indirect violence especiallyin the community and the use of aggressive. and violent conflict resolutiontactics. Females displayed stronger positive correlations between exposure totraumatic violence and physical/verbal abuse and violent conflict resolutiontactics, especially at home. It is suggested that interventions and programmesfor adolescents be implemented that address more prosocial skills forresolving conflict.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University