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The Attitudes Toward Violence Scale

Child Version

Robert Elliott

Heidi Bechtoldt

Tracie Pasold

University of Toledo

Areti Tsavoussis

Victims Forum

The importance of early intervention for preventing the development of violent behavior is well recognized. There is particular interest in addressing mediating factors through which risk may be transformed into behavior—for example, attitudes. The Attitudes Toward Violence Scale: Child Version (ATVC) was designed to measure the impact of interventions targeting change in attitudes towards violence in elementary school children. The ATVC demonstrates good internal reliability and has a meaningful two-factor solution: Reactive Violence (violence in response to a perceived or actual threat) and Culture of Violence (a pervasive view that violence is an acceptable and valued behavioral choice). A negative correlation between the ATVC and a child empathy measure provides support for the validity of the ATVC. Being male, self-identification as a victim, and African American ethnicity each predicted endorsement of proviolence attitudes. The ATVC may be useful in targeting interventions based on preexisting attitudinal dispositions and in measuring intervention outcome.

Key Words: violence • attitudes • children • measurement

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