Contents:
- Medical Video: What if we treated violence like a contagious disease?
- Teenagers participate in violence if their friends or relatives are involved
- Violence is a form of emotional transmission
- The importance of anti-violence programs
Medical Video: What if we treated violence like a contagious disease?
Many parents are worried if their children have friends who behave rudely. The reason is, they think the child will be carried away by such abusive behavior. In fact the concerns of most parents are proven. Based on the results of a study published in the American Journal of Public Health, violence can indeed be contagious and spread like someone infected with the flu virus.
Teenagers participate in violence if their friends or relatives are involved
The team of researchers from Ohio State University investigated data collected by the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health since 1994. A total of 6000 secondary school students were interviewed in depth every few years, so researchers could trace their friendship relationships. As a result, teenagers will most likely participate in violence if their friends or relatives are involved.
The researchers found that as many as 48 percent of the teens studied were more prone to serious fights, while the possibility of someone injuring another person would increase by 183 percent if he also had friends who had hurt others. Other than that, if someone has a friend who points a gun, then the risk of a teenager to attack other people with weapons will increase to 140 percent.
The study also found that spread can occur in four levels of friendship. Penyebaran can occur from friends who are teenagers know directly, from friends of friends and even to "fourth-tier friends" that is, friends of friends of friends of the child's direct friends.
If adolescents have aggressive peers in their friendships, it can increase the likelihood of children committing abuse to 82 percent, especially among teenage boys.
Violence is a form of emotional transmission
Busman, one of the researchers, said that social relations play an important role in the dissemination of social behavior. The researchers also provide evidence of an arrangement of social and psychological maps of violence including emotional transmission.
To understand how violence can spread, one must understand the underlying psychological mechanisms first. One mechanism is imitation. Peer influences have been associated with a variety of adolescent behaviors, including delinquency and violence.This is what reinforces previous findings if the character and behavior of a person can be transmitted through friendship, ranging from the level of happiness, obesity, to smoking.
The importance of anti-violence programs
The research findings further underline the importance of non-violence programs. Because if we can stop violent behavior in one person, this will spread to other friend circles. So that we are not only able to prevent one person, but have the potential to prevent violence in all people who make contact with that person.
