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Abstract
Revenge goals are correlated with maladjustment, and retaliation is a factor driving youth violence. However, revenge might be an important social tool adolescents use to achieve (self-)justice in environments where institutionalized interventions from authorities such as teachers or police are limited. This qualitative secondary analysis of 50 revenge scenarios from a larger study (N = 358 youth-caregiver dyads) expands one-dimensional knowledge from closed-answer vignettes to the rich real-world experiences of youth (aged 10-16; 30 boys, 20 girls), from an urban community sample. Ten patterns of qualitative differences in cognition and emotion of revenge scenarios emerged and are discussed within the revised model of social information processing (SIP). Importance of reputation, confidence in non-violent solutions, and the influence of intense emotions were among the themes. Gender differences and implications for prevention are discussed.
Keywords social information processing, revenge, qualitative, adolescents
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Author Biographies
Lena Jäggi is a Swiss citizen and received her master of law in criminology and criminal law from the University of Berne, Switzerland, in 2010. In 2014, she received her MS in psychology from Virginia Commonwealth University, where she is currently pursuing her PhD in applied developmental psychology. Her research interests include program evaluation in the context of aggressive behavior, violence, and delinquency prevention for youth, as well as the impact of exposure to violence, aggression, delinquency, and incarceration on adolescent adjustment across different cultural settings.
Wendy Kliewer is professor and chair of the psychology department at Virginia Commonwealth University. A stress and coping researcher with developmental and prevention interests, her work examines the negative sequelae associated with chronic stressors such as poverty and community violence, and the role of the family in mitigating stress responses in youth.
