Further Tests of the Media Violence-Aggression Link: Replication and Extension of the 7 Nations Project With Multiple Latinx Samples

Numerous studies from various countries and cultural backgrounds have found a link between media violence consumption and aggressive behaviors and cognition. However, some failures to replicate these findings potentially suggest that some Latinx cultures may be relatively invulnerable to such harmful effects. To investigate this, media violence exposure and aggression data were collected from samples of predominantly Latinx communities in Brazil, Mexico, and Southwest Texas U.S., as well as from a Canadian sample for contrast. Replication and extension tests of hypotheses derived from the general aggression model and the 7 Nations Media Violence Project (Anderson et al., 2017) were conducted. This cross-sectional study (N = 862) revealed violent media exposure-to-aggression effect sizes with Latinx samples that are comparable to those from other ethnicities and countries in previous studies. This relation remained significant in statistical "destructive tests" that included other major risk factors for aggression in the model. The effect generalized across samples, sex, and type of aggression (physical, verbal, and relational).