Interpersonal aggression in urban minority youth: Mediators of perceived neighborhood, peer, and parental influences

This study examined perceived social environment and personal control varia bles as predictors of interpersonal aggression in urban minority youth. Per ceived environmental factors included neighborhood risk, friends' delinquen cy; and parental monitoring practices, which were examined as direct predic tors of aggression and as indirect predictors mediated by anger control ski lls and risk-taking characteristics. The sample consisted of 452 primarily African-American sixth-graders attending Neu York City public schools. stru ctural equation modeling indicated that better perceived parental monitorin g practices were directly associated with less aggression and had an indire ct effect that was mediated by better anger control skills. Perceived neigh borhood risk and friends' delinquency were directly associated with more ag gression and had indirect effects that were mediated by greater individual risk-taking. Implications of these findings for prevention interventions ar e discussed. (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.