ADOLESCENTS AND VIOLENCE: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW OF PROTECTIVE AND RISK FACTORS

DOI: https://doi.org/10.26758/15.1.1

(1) National Correctional Officers Training School Târgu Ocna, Department of Law, Social Sciences and Humanities, Bacău Phone: 0746692576; e-mail: ciurbeaflavia@gmail.com (corresponding author)

(2) Faculty of Sociology and Social Work – University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania; e-mail: vmarinescu9@yahoo.com

(3) Municipal Centre of Resources and Educational Assistance Bucharest; e-mail: a_rodideal@yahoo.com

(4) (5) “Francisc I. Rainer” Institute of Anthropology, Romanian Academy; e-mail: (4) alexandra_elena.neagu@yahoo.com (5) corneliarada@yahoo.com

Address correspondence to: Flavia-Elena CIURBEA, National Correctional Officers Training School Târgu Ocna, Department of Law, Social Sciences and Humanities, Tisești street, No. 137, Târgu Ocna, Bacău county, Romania. Ph.: +40-746-692-576; E-mail: ciurbeaflavia@gmail.com

Abstract

Objectives. The objective of the study was to identify the most common predictors and protective factors regarding juvenile violence as revealed by the scientific literature.

Material and methods. Information was searched in the APA PsycNet and PubMed platforms. Longitudinal studies were chosen, which evaluated potential risk or protective factors in violent manifestation and whose samples had an average age of 14-21 years at the time of the violence risk assessment. 39 papers that met the inclusion criteria were retained.

Results. The main classes of risk factors were family difficulties: family violence, parent-child conflicts, etc.; individual psychological triggering factors like: anger, low self-control, etc.; history of victimization; school problems: learning difficulties, negative models in school, etc.; substance use; early violent manifestation; the negative influence of the neighborhood. The major categories of the protective factors referred to the favorable family climate: parental involvement, connection with parents, etc.; the presence of beneficial individual psychological factors: emotional well-being, high levels of emotional regulation, etc.; the existence of a positive school climate: school satisfaction, school connectedness, etc. Certain factors were significant only for girls (e.g., religiosity as a protective factor, somatic complaints as a risk factor), and others were significant only for boys (e.g., carrying weapons to school as a risk factor, parental monitoring as a protective factor).

Conclusions. Family, individual psychological, and school factors can have both a predictive and a protective role in violence. Amplifying the beneficial dimensions of these factors may contribute to reducing the risk of antisocial behaviors among adolescents.

Keywords: violence, adolescents, risk factors, protective factors.

Suggested citation (APA)

Ciurbea, F.E., Marinescu, V., Rodideal, A.A., Neagu, A.E., & Rada, C. (2025). Adolescents and violence: A systematic review of protective and risk factors. Anthropological Researches and Studies, 15, 1-27. https://doi.org/10.26758/15.1.1

Introduction

Throughout his evolution, man goes through different stages of development, each of which is defined by certain particularities. Regarding the adolescence, it is characterized as an intense and sometimes stressful period in which the role of ambiguity prevails (Csikszentmihalyi, 2021). In this transit interval between childhood and adulthood, one of the main problems that can be encountered is violence (Papalia, Olds, & Feldman, 1978/2010, pp. 354, 414).

The American Psychological Association defined violence as “the expression of hostility and rage with the intent to injure or damage people or property through physical force,” but also as “passion or intensity of emotions or statements” (VandenBos, 2013/2020, p. 650). Although there is no consensus regarding the actions that can be considered violent, it is known that in certain forms of violence, the emotion involved is anger (Ekman, 2003/2019, pp. 194-195).

Krug, Dahlberg, Mercy, Zwi, and Lozano (2002) proposed the following typology of violence, depending on the relationship between the perpetrator and the victim: self-directed violence, interpersonal violence, and collective violence (p. 6). Each category is then further subdivided into subcategories, as follows: self-directed violence involves suicidal behavior and self-abuse; interpersonal violence can target family members (children, family elders) or the intimate partner, but also the community (either known people or strangers); collective violence can be social, political, and economic (Krug et al., 2002, p. 7). For all these categories, the nature of the violence can be physical, sexual, psychological, and involving deprivation or neglect (Krug et al., 2002, p. 7). Sexual violence is an exception because it cannot be inflicted upon oneself (Krug et al., 2002, p. 7).

The most commonly reported acts of violence among young people include sexual violence, physical fighting, and bullying (World Health Organization [WHO], 2020). Annually, there are approximately 200,000 homicides among young people aged 10-24 years worldwide, representing a significant percentage of total homicides globally (42%) (WHO, 2020). According to European statistics, young aggressors usually choose as their victims people of similar ages (National Institute of Justice, 1998, Juvenile crime rates increased across the European Union, para. 3).

Although the total number of arrests for violent crimes committed by youth in the United States of America (US) has been on a downward path since 1994 until 2019, falling by half between 2006 and 2019, it was found that adolescents under 15 accounted for a third of all juvenile arrests in 2019 (Puzzanchera, 2020). At the EU level, in some countries with high rates of juvenile arrests per 100,000 population reported for 2018 (e.g., Poland: 26.96, Hungary: 11.72), there was a decrease between 2014 and 2018, while a slight increase in the number of minors for whom deprivation of liberty was ordered was noted in other countries that attract attention from the perspective of juvenile crime (e.g., Italy: 15.05, Turkey: 13.05) (Eurostat, 2021). Fluctuations in the number of minors in custody were reported for Romania during this period: after the peak from 2013, there was a decrease in the following two years, then a new peak was reached in 2016, followed by another decrease in 2018 (Eurostat, 2021). Data at the level of Romania show that at the beginning of 2021, 527 young people aged 18 to 21 were in the custody of the penitentiary system for crimes committed with violence (murder, robbery, rape, destruction), and 171 minors (14–17 years old) were in custody for robbery, murder, and rape (National Administration of Penitentiaries, 2021).

It is also worth noting the frequency with which adolescents die as a result of violent causes. This is more evident in the USA, where deaths involving firearms were the second leading cause of adolescent death after traffic accidents, followed by suicide (Papalia et al., 1978/2010, p. 370). According to WHO (2020), homicide is the fourth leading cause of death among young people between 10-29 years of age.

Violent acts, including premeditated or impulsive ones, may benefit from social approval depending on the context (Ekman, 2003/2019, p. 197). Rutter (cited in Ekman, 2003/2019, p. 198) recalled the research efforts of some scholars who concluded that the violent antisocial actions taken by adolescents in groups should not be labeled as signs of mental disorder, since most of the time, these behaviors do not persist after adolescence. Nonetheless, the reason violence among adolescents attracts attention is that some of them end up being convicted or even losing their lives as a result of committing violent acts.

From a neuroscientific point of view, adolescent behavior may be explained by reference to the prefrontal cortex. This structure plays a role in reasoning and impulse control (Papalia et al., 1978/2010, p. 414). The input that prefrontal regions receive from cells in the tegmentum that release mesolimbic dopamine contributes to the regulation of the response of prefrontal neurons to stimuli, this process having possible consequences on the person’s emotional response (Kolb & Whishaw, 1980/2015, pp. 429-430) . As the prefrontal cortex is still in a developmental phase during adolescence, it is thought that those in this age period may be more vulnerable to acting out violently, as the neural response to stressful stimuli is likely to generate anger and states of irritability (Papalia et al., 1978/2010, p. 414; Kolb & Whishaw, 1980/2015, pp. 429-430). The input that prefrontal regions receive from cells in the tegmentum that release mesolimbic dopamine helps to regulate the response of prefrontal neurons to stimuli, which can affect an individual’s emotional response (Kolb & Whishaw, 1980/2015, pp. 429-430). As the prefrontal cortex is still in a developmental phase during adolescence, it is thought that those in this age period may be more vulnerable to acting out violently, as the neural response to stressful stimuli is likely to generate anger and states of irritability (Papalia et al., 1978/2010, p. 414; Kolb & Whishaw, 1980/2015, pp. 429-430).

Violence must be looked at carefully, as it may also appear in adolescence and as a characteristic preceding the development of a personality disorder, such as antisocial personality disorder. For adolescents under 18, violence may be a symptom of disruptive behavior, impulse control, and conduct disorders (e.g., oppositional defiant disorder, intermittent explosive disorder, conduct disorder) (APA, 2013/2016). Another problem is raised by conduct disorder, which consists of a repetitive and persistent behavioral pattern of violating the basic rights of other people and age-appropriate social rules, characterized by aggression directed at other people or animals, destruction of material goods, cheating or theft, as well as serious violation of important rules for good growth and development (e.g. running away from home, frequent truancy or refusal to sleep at night before the age of 13). This has a higher average prevalence than oppositional defiant disorder and intermittent explosive disorder (APA, 2013/2016, pp. 469-470). Four important dimensions compete in the development of conduct disorder and any other disorder that manifests itself through a pattern of violent behavior: the psychological, social, sociocultural, and biological dimensions (Sue, Sue, Sue, & Sue, 2013/2016, p. 515; APA, 2013/2016).

Considering gender, these disorders are documented mainly among the male population (APA, 2013/2016, p. 461). However, in terms of risk and prognostic factors, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) does not identify specific predictors for girls and boys. Therefore, a differentiated analysis of the risk factors and also of the protective factors related to the two gender groups could make an important contribution to the research on violence.

Regardless of the intensity with which it manifests itself, from mild forms of impulsivity to rapture (Prelipceanu, 2011/2018, p. 72), violence can create serious difficulties in the life of the adolescent and those with whom he interacts. Taking into account this aspect, the intention of this paper is to investigate the factors that other studies have highlighted as having an essential role in the expression of violence by adolescents. This approach could prove useful in understanding the reasons why some teenagers become violent. Such a literature review on violence and its associated factors could lead to a broad understanding of the phenomenon of violence among young people, whose purpose could be concretized in the creation of intervention strategies to lessen the effects of violent behavior. Also, the results can contribute to the formulation of recommendations to prevent the spread of violent behavior among teenagers, orienting future interventions to reduce violent crime among the young population.

Purpose and objectives of the study

This paper aimed to identify the main factors involved in the adolescents’ violent behavior.

The research questions formulated for this goal were:

1. What are the risk factors most commonly investigated in existing research on adolescent violence?
2. What are those factors that most often protect adolescents against adopting violent behavior?
3. Are there certain factors that can play a dual role, so they can be both risk factors and protective factors?
4. Do the factors that predispose to violence and those that protect girls against violent manifestation differ from the factors that play the same roles for boys?
5. What recommendations can be made based on the accumulation of the results of the existing studies, so that their implementation may contribute to the prevention and combating of violence among adolescents?

Starting from these research questions, the following objectives were established:

O1: Identifying the most common risk factors, on the one hand, and the protective factors, on the other hand, concerning juvenile violence, as well as the common elements between them.

O2: Analyzing differences between risk and protective factors by gender.

O3: The development of recommendations to prevent and reduce the incidence of violent actions taken by adolescents.

Methodology

Data source

APA PsycNet and PubMed were sought for articles on risk factors and protection of adolescent violence. The terms ‘violence’, ‘risk’, and ‘protective’ were combined by the linking word ‘AND’, resulting in ‘violence AND risk AND protective’. The search was carried out between February and March 2021, and all works on this subject indexed in the two platforms were chosen, regardless of the year of publication. Thus, APA PsycNet provided a total of 135 articles, and PubMed provided 4361 search results.

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

The obtained items were sorted in the first phase by applying the filters available on the two platforms. One of the inclusion criteria was the average age of the participants, which was determined to be between 14 and 21 years. Thus, the age groups adolescence and young adulthood were used as filters. Next, given the large number of search results, an additional filter was applied, which allowed the selection of only those papers written in English. The next step consisted of identifying that literature review articles which did not correspond to the mentioned criteria in order to eliminate them.

Due to the large number of remaining articles (1657), we chose to search for articles using a longitudinal design. It was decided to include longitudinal studies since the long-term follow-up of the relationships between variables allows the development of equations that indicate that certain factors exerted a certain influence on the dependent variables (Caruana, Roman, Hernández-Sánchez, & Solli, 2015).

For the 251 studies identified following the search for the keyword “longitudinal,” we resorted to the analysis of titles and abstracts. Duplicate records, articles whose participants were not representative of the general population (e.g., had asthma, learning difficulties, psychiatric problems, underwent medical or psychological treatments, etc.), whose samples did not consist of adolescents, the articles that did not take into consideration the manifestation of violence in adolescents but other dependent variables, the articles that focused on adolescent risk factors for violent behaviors in adulthood, or cross-sectional, qualitative studies, and the remaining literature reviews were eliminated. Articles whose summaries referred to externalizing behaviors but did not mention whether or not they involved violence were also removed. In the end, there were 67 articles for which the full-text analysis was carried out. Among the 67 articles, 27 articles were eliminated in three stages of exclusion based on the established criteria.

Figure 1 briefly summarizes the steps taken until the final number of articles was obtained.

Figure 1

Graphical representation of the inclusion/exclusion process (to see Figure 1, please click here)

Data analysis and extraction

For those articles that met the inclusion criteria in the systematic review, the following indicators were extracted: authors and year of publication, sample size, participants’ age and gender, the location where data were collected, and the additional information related to the study (e.g., particularities of the sample, the years when data were obtained, etc.). This information has been systematized in Tables 1 and 2, which can be found after the conclusions.

Results

The manifestations of both general and specific types of violence, such as bullying, cyberbullying, and harassment, were investigated in the articles included in this systematic review.

Of the 39 articles, 17 offered findings regarding both the factors that favor the adoption of aggressive behavior and those that protect against such manifestations among adolescents. Most of the papers (34) identified risk factors for violence, while only 24 of the publications explicitly mentioned in the results section the protective role of certain factors against pursuing a violent trajectory.

Of the total longitudinal studies on risk and protective factors, 28 analyzed data from the USA. The other articles operationalized data collected from Australia, Canada, South Africa, England, and Northern Ireland.

Four studies examined exclusively male samples, while the remaining studies tried to maintain balanced proportions between boys and girls. For a single study, no information on participants’ gender was identified. Sample sizes ranged from 70 to more than 13,000 participants, representing the number of adolescents who took part in the assessment phase during which the violence data were gathered.

The identified risk factors were grouped into 9 major categories, namely: 1) family difficulties: poor family management, lack of parental support, family violence, marital conflicts, conflicts between parents and children, etc.; 2) individual psychological factors: high self-esteem, somatic symptoms, anxiety, depression, anger, attention problems, low self-control, narcissism, etc.; 3) history of victimization: sexual abuse, physical abuse, physical neglect, etc.; 4) school problems: truancy, learning difficulties, negative role modes in school, poor grades, etc.; 5) substance use: especially alcohol and marijuana; 6) early violent manifestation; 7) neighborhood influence: exposure to community violence, neighborhood disorder, etc.; 8) peer-to-peer delinquency; 9) carrying weapons.

The protective factors against violence were organized into 3 main classes: 1) family factors: parental involvement, connection with parents, etc.; 2) individual psychological factors: religiosity, emotional well-being, high levels of emotional regulation, ethnic identity, etc.; 3) school-related factors: high grades, school satisfaction with, school connectedness with, etc.

These categories are presented synthetically in Table 3, along with the number of articles in which they were detected.

Table 3

The number of articles in which risk and protective factor categories were identified (to see Table 3, please click here)

Depending on their positive or negative characteristics, some factors were both risk and protective factors against violence. Figure 2 shows a graphical mirror representation of them.

Figure 2

Risk or protective factors according to positive or negative characteristics (to see Figure 2, please click here)

Some studies have revealed factors with a mediating role in the relationship between the predictor variables and the variable related to violence. The schematic representation of mediating relationships between risk factors and violence shown in Figure 3 is based on the results obtained by Livingston et al. (2018). A low level of maternal warmth, reduced self-regulation during early childhood, externalizing behavior between kindergarten and early adolescence, and sibling conflicts in middle childhood all acted as mediating factors between early parental psychopathology and dating violence. Following the same principle, externalizing behavior during childhood mediated the relationship between marital conflict and dating violence. This result indicates that neither parental psychopathology during infancy nor marital conflict were proximal predictors for the type of violence that was analyzed, confirming the existence of an indirect relationship between the two predictor variables and the criterion variable. In other words, parental psychopathology in infancy was a direct predictor of a low level of maternal warmth, low self-regulation, externalizing behavior, and sibling problems, while marital conflict was a direct predictor of externalizing behavior. In turn, low levels of maternal warmth and self-regulation, externalizing behavior, and sibling problems were direct predictors of dating violence.

Figure 3

Mediating relationships between parental psychopathology in infancy and marital conflict as risk factors for violent behavior (to see Figure 3, please click here)

Other studies have highlighted the existence of moderators in the relationship between certain predictors and violent behavior. These moderating variables were both quantitative and qualitative and had the role of influencing the strength or direction of the link between the predictor variables and violent behavior. The results of the study undertaken by Caiozzo, Houston, and Grych (2016) exemplify the moderating role played by the level of emotion regulation in the relationship between aggressive attitude, respectively callous-unemotional traits, and physical aggression. These authors observed that aggressive attitudes were predictors of committing physical aggression only in the presence of low levels of emotion regulation, and boys with low levels of callous-unemotional traits committed less physical aggression when they reported higher levels of emotion regulation. Similarly, Caldwell, Kohn-Wood, Schmeelk-Cone, Chavous, and Zimmerman (2004) showed that the link between racial discrimination and the number and type of violent acts was moderated by variables such as beliefs about how others perceive Black people and the importance placed on race as identity. Thus, those who believed that other groups viewed Blacks favorably and who were more frequently discriminated against based on race engaged in more violent acts compared to those who believed that other groups possessed more negative attitudes towards Blacks, this finding being true for both boys and girls. In addition, racial discrimination was found to be associated with engaging in more types of violent behaviors for boys for whom race was a less important identity, but not for those for whom the race was a more central identity. Race was found to be a moderator between authoritarian parenting and intergenerational continuity of child abuse in the research conducted by Valentino, Nuttall, Comas, Borkowski, and Akai (2012), with results indicating that the authoritarian parenting model was protective only within African-American families. On the other hand, no distinction was outlined between the continuation and the cessation of abuse in subsequent generations in the case of Caucasian-American families, depending on this type of parenting (Valentino et al., 2012). In addition, functional families in terms of parental dimensions and family relationships decreased the risk of perpetuating violence as a result of exposure to high levels of community violence (Gorman-Smith, Henry, & Tolan, 2004).

Gender differences were identified in the reviewed studies. Certain risk and protective factors were relevant only for girls and others only for boys. For example, in the research undertaken by Foshee et al. (2015), anxiety and neighborhood deviant behavior patterns were risk factors for violence only in adolescent girls, while heavy drinking (a risk factor) and parental monitoring (a protective factor) were significant factors just for boys. Borowsky, Ireland, and Resnick (2001) found that carrying weapons at school and same-sex romantic attraction were risk factors for violence only among boys. Also, for boys, Saner and Ellickson (1996) showed that the manifestation of deviant behaviors, as well as the poor connections with school and family, were strong predictors of violence, while family problems and impaired connection with parents were strong predictors for girls. In the study undertaken by Copeland-Linder, Lambert, Chen, and Ialongo (2011), racial discrimination was an important risk factor for boys. Then, although some studies have shown that part-time or summer employment and working to save money for college may have some benefits for adolescents (Steinberg, Greenberger, Garduque, & McAuliffe, 1982; Marsh, 1991), Resnick, Ireland, and Borowsky’s (2004) research findings indicated that the employment for at least 20 hours per week in income-generating activities was a risk factor for violence in boys. Narcissism, higher self-esteem, somatic complaints, and learning problems were representative risk factors only for girls, according to some studies (Caiozzo et al., 2016; Resnick et al., 2004). Regarding the protective factors, such as emotional well-being, support received from friends, family cohesion and religiosity were significant predictors of reduced levels of violence in girls (Borowsky et al., 2001; Richards & Branch, 2012; Resnick et al., 2004). In boys, above-average academic performance and understanding parents’ high expectations for academic achievement were protective factors against engaging in violent behaviors (Borowsky et al., 2001; Resnick et al., 2004).

Discussions

Family and history of victimization

Although this systematic review includes only two articles on this topic, the specific literature on the intergenerational transmission of violence patterns is vast. A Californian study of 85,084 first births found that the abuse and neglect for children of mothers who were listed by child protective services as potential victims of maltreatment was significantly higher than for children of mothers who did it not (Putnam-Hornstein, Cederbaum, King, Eastman, & Trickett, 2015). Another longitudinal study undertaken in the US that investigated 706 mothers with their children indicated that the sons of those mothers who were subjected to a high level of maltreatment by a parent or a caregiver had a more than four times greater risk of being maltreated compared to those children whose mothers did not experience such treatments (Fenerci & Allen, 2018). According to another longitudinal assessment of 187 mother-child dyads in the US, those children of maltreated mothers were more likely to be maltreated during early childhood (Bosquet Enlow, Englund, & Egeland, 2016).

Maternal maltreatment has been shown to have important psychological consequences for children: a high risk of clinically significant emotional and behavioral problems at the age of seven (Bosquet Enlow et al., 2016) and increased numbers of internalizing and externalizing symptoms at the age of 12 (Fenerci & Allen, 2018). Also, Cui, Oshri, Liu, Smith, and Kogan (2020), following the longitudinal investigation from the age of 4 to the age of 18 years of a sample of 1,354 participants in the USA, showed that the adolescents who experienced maltreatment during childhood exhibited higher levels of delinquent behavior and lower self-esteem.

In Romania, Rada (2014) found that violence continues to be considered an acceptable strategy to discipline both children and their partners within the couple’s relationship. This belief was supported by data provided by 869 adult respondents, with the belief being stronger among those who had witnessed violence between parents and who had experienced physical abuse within the family of origin. At the same time, the highest proportion of violence suffered by women and manifested by men within the family of procreation was registered among people who were both witnesses and victims of violence in their childhood or adolescence within their family of origin (Rada, 2014).

Individual psychological factors

Individual factors were the next significant element in predicting and preventing violence among adolescents. Anger, behavioral self-regulation, and empathy are some examples.

It is important to note that violent behavior can be generated by the way the adolescent interprets external stimuli (e.g., appreciation from others, actions, situations, etc.). Angry people let themselves be guided by an “irrational must” regarding others (e.g., “they must treat me exactly as I want”), regarding life circumstances (e.g., “I must get what I want quickly and easily”), and regarding fulfillment and approval (e.g., “I have to please my colleagues, because otherwise they will say I’m a sucker”) (Ellis & Tafrate, 2015). Pointing out that being angry and venting your anger violently does not help in life, as well as increasing tolerance for frustration by learning anger management techniques such as those in Rational-Emotive and Behavioral Therapy (Ellis & Tafrate, 2015), can be ways to move from aggressive to assertive.

James (2008/2018) explained that three main factors are involved in a person’s behavioral choices: the instinctual voice, the social voice, and the logical voice (p. 51). The voice of instinct urges the person to action, ignoring the possible consequences of the behavior; the second voice represents the diplomatic side of the person, capable of empathy and characterized by a preference for long-term gains; and the last one (the logical voice) reflects the rational side, which guides the person towards clear, calculated thinking. According to James (2008/2018), people differ according to the intensity of their logical voice; for some, it is inaudible, while for others, it plays a central role. In the case of teenagers, it is important to seek to create a balance between these three components (instinctual, social, and logical), which ensures a harmonious evolution towards adulthood.

 School factors

As an environment in which adolescents spend a significant amount of their time, the school exerts an important influence on their behavior, intentionally or indirectly educating students about violence. On the one hand, the intentional educational process oriented against violence could represent a protective factor (violence awareness campaigns, anti-violence contests organized in schools, etc.). On the other hand, school can also be a risky environment when there is a high probability of informal contact with the phenomenon of violence (colleagues bringing weapons to school, fights between colleagues, bullying, etc.).

As with their own family, adolescent students’ poor connection to school might represent a risk factor for violence (Saner & Ellickson, 1996; Reyes, Foshee, Markiewitz, Chen, & Ennett, 2018; Bernat, Oakes, Pettingell, & Resnick, 2012), while high levels of school belonging which means students’ pride in being a part of the school where they study, can be a protective factor (Borowsky et al., 2002; Henrich et al., 2005; Resnick et al., 2004).

What we can notice, however, is the result obtained by Basile, Rostad, Leemis, Espelage, and Davis (2018), which shows that, in the case of sexual aggressors, there was a steep acceleration of school membership compared to nonviolent peers. A similar result was obtained by Leemis et al. (2018): adolescents with high levels of school belonging have higher risks of committing bullying and sexual harassment, either traditional or cybernetic. These atypical results might suggest that bullies gain peer sympathy precisely by committing such violent acts.

Neighborhood and substance use

Other risk factors for violence, such as substance use and the neighborhood’s influence, deserve consideration. The black drug market is known to generate violent conflicts between buyers and dealers, and in some regions the death rate from violent confrontations exceeds the death rate from other risks associated with drug trafficking and use, such as overdose or HIV infection (APA, 2013/2016, p. 546). Also to be considered is the consumption of alcohol, which during intoxication can produce effects both socially and interpersonally, such as violent conflicts and abuse (APA, 2013/2016, p. 492). With this information in mind, the relationship between drug use, neighborhood, and juvenile violence can be explained as follows: The presence of psychotropic substances close by (in the neighborhood, even in the school or in the city) makes it easier for teenagers to obtain them for consumption, which increases the risk of violent incidents occurring during the intoxication phase. These incidents include fights between juvenile drug-dealing gangs and other gangs, as well as unaffiliated teenagers looking to buy drugs.

The role models that adolescents relate to can also play an important role in violent behavior. Some films and series present negative characters as having an important status and being respected by others. Also, the role models in the neighborhood (e.g., a close friend who imposes himself through violence and gets the respect of those of his age) can influence the level of violence manifested, especially during adolescence, which is characterized by the search for asserting one’s own identity.

Pornography

Although highlighted in only one study (Leemis, Espelage, Basile, Mercer Kollar, & Davis, 2019), pornography consumption has been a phenomenon that has increasingly attracted the attention of researchers in recent years. Children begin to have contact with images with sexual content from an early age (9–11 years), and the percentage of those exposed to such content increases considerably with age (Smahel et al., 2020).

Pornography seems to be more and more present in the lives of teenagers. The majority of Europeans between 9 and 10 years of age surveyed stated that they are not bothered by viewing sexual images, some of them even declaring that they are happy to see them (Smahel et al., 2020). Some authors (Russell, 1993; Zillmann & Bryant, 1984) explained that frequent exposure to pornography leads to desensitization, which is why the person in question begins to seek out new, more explicit, and more violent pornographic materials with the aim of achieving a state of arousal (cited in Barron & Kimmel, 2000). According to Winter (2000), power, sex, and violence excite the sympathetic nervous system, and the fusion of the three elements can cause addiction.

A qualitative analysis of 35 male students at an elite US university, with an average age of 21 years, found that pornography consumed during leisure time can have educational qualities, serving as an exploratory tool and contributing to the development of sexual identity (McCormack & Wignall, 2017).

However, Wieckowski, Hartsoe, Mayer, and Shortz’s (1998) quantitative study of 12- to 15-year-old adolescents in the custody of the Virginia Department of Juvenile Justice after committing sexual offenses indicated that the onset of sexually deviant behavior can occur during childhood, and identified risk factors included family dysfunction, abuse, and early exposure to pornography. Wieckowski et al. (1998) highlighted the fact that children are capable of committing sexual offenses of a similar gravity to offenses committed by adults, noting that in most cases they forced the victim and sometimes went as far as violence.

Gender differences

When behaviors involving violence are analyzed, boys appear to be more active than girls in this regard. Taylor, Merrilees, Goeke-Morey, Shirlow, and Cummings (2016) noticed that 15-year-old boys reported more violent behaviors compared to girls of the same age. Also, the specific literature has focused mainly on male violence (Reidy, Smith-Darden, Cortina, Kernsmith, & Kernsmith, 2015; Lavoie et al., 2002; Banyard et al., 2019; Evans & Kotowski, 2024; Ciurbea, 2023); this is also highlighted in the current systematic review, which found that four studies investigated purely male samples, whereas no study had a female-only sample.

This does not mean, however, that girls cannot be involved in actions with different degrees of violence; the stereotypes related to the activity of girls, including in gangs, are being overcome by the results of research from the last 30 years (Esbensen, Peterson, Taylor, & Freng, 2010, p. 83). However, certain differences that emerge between genders when assessing the factors that predispose to violence and those that prevent it remain to be discussed.

Aggression can be appealing, especially among teenagers, making psychological intervention to curb the violence more difficult. Some girls are drawn to “bad boys” or “macho,” just as some boys prefer “bad girls.” Knowing this, some youths take advantage of the exciting aspect of aggression, inciting violent conflicts to impress possible sexual partners. It is important for adolescents to learn desirable strategies by which they can gain the sympathy of the people they are attracted to (Puigvert, Gelsthorpe, Soler-Gallart, & Flecha, 2019).

Common elements between risk and protective factors

Regarding violence, common risk and protective factors, in descending order, were related to family, psychological, and school-related factors. This symmetry could suggest that if these factors were positioned on a continuum of violence, then the same factor could be both a risk factor and a protective factor, depending on the positive or negative value assigned to it. As a result, it is essential to enhance the protective aspects of the factors implicated in juvenile violence while also reducing the dimensions that could amplify it.

Conclusions

General conclusions

Seven major categories of risk factors for adolescent violence were identified: family difficulties, individual predisposing psychological factors, school problems, history of victimization, substance use, early exposure to violence, and negative neighborhood influence. The identified protective factors made up the following three broad categories: a positive family climate, beneficial individual psychological factors (e.g., emotional well-being, high levels of emotional regulation, and religiosity), and a positive school climate.            Adolescents are in the stage of character formation, in which the relational value and self-regulation sides of the personality develop (Papalia et al., 1978/2010, pp. 360, 390). For this reason, psychological interventions focused on value areas such as family, intimate relationships, friends, work, health, growth, and development are essential. It is critical that the intervention is primarily focused on the family nucleus and is implemented in schools and neighborhoods, with the goal of collaboration between these institutions, in order to discourage violent behavior (Orcena et al., 2024). Likewise, the adolescent’s personal development is a priority in managing negative emotions and cultivating individual traits with a protective role against violence (Gilbert, 2020). Gender differences need to be taken into account in order to develop individualized intervention plans, depending on the particularities of the target group.

Particular attention should also be paid to suicide attempts in adolescents as a particular form of violence involving self-harm. Regarding this topic, Borowsky et al. (2001) observed that when three protective factors were present, the risk of suicide attempt decreased by up to 70–85%, regardless of gender, race, or ethnicity, and regardless of the presence or absence of risk factors.

In parallel with the intervention measures, it is necessary to continue scientific research efforts on the predictors of violent behavior in adolescence, as well as on those factors that have the role of protecting young people from adopting violent behavior. One of the key future directions in this field is represented by the longitudinal design research protocol published by Schønning et al. (2021), which sought to identify and explain links between dependent variables like health status, educational background, crime, and negative life events and independent variables like abuse, family, school, and social functioning, and negative life events and substance abuse in children and adolescents up to 18 years old with a history of maltreatment. Furthermore, analyzing the evolution of the teenage violence trend after returning to school following a period of online instruction due to the COVID-19 epidemic could contribute to a deeper understanding of the juvenile violence problem. As we approach the next decade of 2021-2030, more research of this kind is needed, which traces causal relationships between a variety of childhood factors and the extent and types of violence experienced throughout adolescence in light of current social, technical, and educational realities.

Recommendations for intervention

Family climate and victimization history. The family of origin is the starting point for attempts to prevent and mitigate the violent manifestations. Protecting children from various stressors, such as intra-family conflicts, abuse, neglect, deprivation of affection, and other material and emotional resources necessary for their healthy development, strengthening the bonds between adolescents and parents, as well as the extended family, and increasing the level of the parental monitoring may all help to reduce the risk of violence. Thornberry et al. (2013), analyzing data from birth to age 30 for 711 participants in New York, found that relationship satisfaction, parental satisfaction and attachment to the child in adulthood protected maltreated individuals from the risk of applying the maltreatment model of childhood.

Individual psychological factors. The plasticity of factors, understood by their property of being either predictors of violence or protective factors against it, suggests that these factors can be shaped. Neuroplasticity allows the shaping of the adolescent’s personality, making it possible to break the usual cycle of responding to certain stimuli and may facilitate the assimilation of new patterns of thought and behavior (Dispenza, 2007/2012). Thus, psychotherapy can represent an effective process in the prevention of violence in which adolescents can access trauma, heal it, and form new ways of relating to themselves and those around them. These new relationship strategies must be based on skills such as active listening, assertive communication, managing emotions in conflict situations, increasing the level of tolerance to frustration, etc. (Nută, 2004; Ellis & Tafrate, 2015). Creative and expressive techniques are recommended while working with children and adolescents, even more so in the context of relational and developmental traumas, as these tools are considered to be less invasive, giving the young persons the space they need to be able to express themselves without feeling overwhelmed (Treisman, 2018/2020, p. 39).

School problems. Psychoeducation is an essential component of managing students’ violence. Approaching violence needs to be accompanied by an examination of some associated dimensions that have implications in its manifestation and are critical for the adolescent age group: identity affirmation and sexuality. Special courses could be introduced in the high school’s curriculum and information campaigns could be launched, as well as workshops on various topics (combating violence in school, the effects of alcohol and drug consumption, sex education, and so on), with the primary goal of acquiring some prophylactic techniques against victimization of oneself and others in an attempt to fulfill the individual needs specific to this age. Designing, adapting, and implementing programs similar to the “Violence Reduction Psychoeducation Program” that led to reductions in anger, violence, and aggression among 11-18-year-old students in Turkey (Akan, 2021) could prove to be useful in several cultural contexts. Also, sports competitions and other activities where adolescents can project their aggression and frustration in a desirable way can help to reduce the level of violence (Gough, 2023).

Substance use and negative neighborhood’s influence. Student visits to educational institutions and penitentiary facilities organized by schools may help to fade youngsters’ romanticized images of criminals and, in that way, discourage them from mimicking the actions of these characters. Even though the hospitalization of young people with deviant behavior in rehabilitation centers actually strengthens their delinquent behavior, some experts advise meetings of teenagers from the risk group with those hospitalized in these facilities to find out directly from them how their risky behavior (e.g., drug use, gang life, etc.) brought them into the situation of being convicted (Comer, 2007/2015, p. 578). Interventions at the individual, school and family level need to be accompanied by interventions at the community level. Kondo, Andreyeva, South, MacDonald, and Branas (2018) conducted a literature review on interventions that addressed the neighborhood in order to reduce violence; they found that limiting access to alcohol, increasing the street connectivity, and making green housing available to average citizens were the strategies that, once implemented, have had the potential to reduce violent crime.

It is still the obligation of the national institutions with responsibilities in the fields of health and education for children and adolescents to design particular programs to lower the risk of violence among young people, based on the evidence collected via scientific research efforts.

Limitations

One of the main limitations of this study is that only two databases were consulted to identify relevant research on protective and risk factors related to violence. Extending the analysis of this topic to encompass several platforms can be an opportunity in order to enrich knowledge in the field.

Many of the articles included in this paper were based on the analysis of data from the large US school-based Add Health study, so a significant part of the results are reported from before the year 2000. Over the last two decades, the social, political, economic, and technological changes may have influenced both the risk and protective factors for violence. However, information, education, and prevention campaigns carried out under various slogans, such as “violence begets violence”, “Stop the Violence”, or “#ENDviolence” (Catholic Review Staff, 2013; WSFA 12 News Staff, 2021; United Nations Children’s Fund, n.d.), are found in many countries and are up to date. Also, government and NGOs anti-violence campaigns under different slogans indicate that some of the actionable factors are the same: the school — the campaign against school violence “You Choose!” 2008 (Direcţia Generală de Asistenţă Socială şi Protecţia Copilului Sector 6 [General Directorate of Social Assistance and Child Protection Sector 6], n.d.), “Choose to oppose bullying!” (Salvați Copiii [Save the Children Romania], n.d.) and the family — “Say No to Domestic Violence!” (Poliția Română [Romanian Police], n.d.).

Acknowledgements

This study is part of Protective and Risk Factors Regarding Youth Violence: A Psycho-Educational and Community Approach for Sustainable Development and Transformation, Project code 54. The research grant is carried out with financial support from the Donors’ Recurrent Fund, at the disposal of the Romanian Academy and managed by the “PATRIMONIU” Foundation GAR2023. Contract: “PATRIMONIU” Foundation – No. 764, “Francisc I. Rainer” Institute of Anthropology – No. 1328, dated November 23, 2023. Project manager: C. RADA.

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Table 1

Risk factors of violence in adolescents (to see Table 1, please click here)

Table 2

Protective factors against adolescent violence (to see Table 2, please click here)

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