The Interplay Between Values and Aggression in Adolescence: A Longitudinal Study

Values, or the guiding standards of adolescents' lives, influence which behaviors are considered more justified than others. The relationship between values and social behavior has been established across many studies including the relationship of values and aggression. But only a few studies have examined these relationships among youth. Moreover, a question that remains open is the direction of these relationships. The present study examined the concurrent and longitudinal relations between values and peer nominated aggression in 3 time points with a 1-year interval (8th grade-10th grade) in a sample of 678 Israeli adolescents (51.2% girls). Students completed the Portrait Values Questionnaire (PVQ; Schwartz et al., 2001) and 6 items of peer nominations of aggression. As hypothesized, I found positive associations between aggression and self-enhancement and openness to change values concurrently. Similarly, I obtained negative associations between aggression and self-transcendence and conservation values. Moreover, crossed-lagged models revealed that self-enhancement values were positively associated with aggression 1 year later. The association between aggression and future self-enhancement values, however, was not significant. Finally, I found mutual associations between self-transcendence values and aggression across time.