Devan Stevens

Introduction

In the Polynesian Islands of Samoa, there is a prevalence of after-school violence associated with school rivalries that is of serious concern to the local governments and community members. There is a paucity of research done in Samoa concerning adolescent aggression. Thus, the need for research is great. Samoan newspapers frequently report inter-school violence and a plethora of acts of aggression amongst the Samoan adolescents (e.g. Samoa Observer April 12, 2010). These acts of violence are often planned and executed by the students of several different school districts, unbeknownst to school officials. Although rarely do these scuffles involve guns, it is not atypical for participants to use other weapons, such as knives, baseball bats, or bottles; thus, significant physical injury can result. Although this particular phenomenon seems specific to Samoa, it is not unlike inter-group violence in other cultures (Bratt 2004, p. 46).

The focus of the present study was to elucidate predictors of those students who are involved in the school fights. Additionally, investment of fighting among Samoan youth at individual, family, and peer levels were assessed and discussed. It is hoped that knowledge gained from this study will enable changes within family circles and school systems, and will help abate the frequency and intensity of such violence. In so doing, we hope to provide a safer lifestyle for the children of Samoa, who will become Samoa’s future.

Method

Participants

The sample was 310 adolescents in Samoa ages 13-19 (M age = 16, SD = 1.34; 40% male; 93% Samoan). In terms of household composition, 76% were in homes with two parents who had not been divorced, 9% had parents who had been divorced, 5% were living with parents who were not married, and 8% had at least one parent who had passed away, and 2% came from other situations. About 53% of mothers and fathers had some university education.

Procedures

I traveled to Samoa for data collection. Participants were recruited through a public school in Samoa. Only students with signed parental consent were allowed to participate. Participant assent was obtained at the beginning of the data collection session. Data were collected on school grounds during school hours via a paper-pencil questionnaire which took approximately 40 minutes to complete.

Measures

The individual factors that were considered in comparison to involvement and investment in inter-school fighting were moral disengagement, social dominance orientation, aggression, self-regulation, religiosity, empathy, moral identity, and school engagement; while the family factors were parental disrespect, parental psychological control, and parental monitoring. The peer factors were peer fight investment, peer fight involvement, and peer aggression.

Results

For the model predicting fight involvement, proactive aggression (β = .22), peer fight involvement (β = .56), and peer reactive aggression (β = .15) were significant positive predictors. None of the other variables accounted for a significant amount of unique variance in fight involvement. For fight investment, proactive aggression (β = .19), moral disengagement (β = .23), peer fight investment (β = .35), and mother psychological control (β = .14) were significant positive predictors. None of the other variables accounted for a significant amount of unique variance in fight investment.