| Abstract: | The current study utilized a structural equations approach in developing an instrument to investigate adolescents’ (N = 510; 9th–12th graders) judgments about the likelihood that they would actively respond to a witnessed aggressive situation. Two aggressive subscales were developed: physical and verbal. The instrument controlled for the relationship (acquaintance vs. friend) of the witness to the perpetrator and to the victim involved in the event. Results provided evidence for a domain approach to judgments about active responses to aggression. Furthermore, as predicted, the factors of gender, age, relationship of the witness to both the victim and the perpetrator, and aggressive situation influenced adolescents’ judgments. Regardless of whether the perpetrator and the victim were acquaintances or friends of the witness, younger males indicated that they were less likely to respond to acts of physical aggression than were adolescents in the other three groups. In contrast, when acquaintances were involved in situations involving verbal aggression, younger males were less likely to respond than were younger females. When the perpetrator and the victim were friends of the witness, females, regardless of age, were more likely than males to respond to verbally aggressive acts. Aggr. Behav. 28:207–223, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc. |
