Predicting The Violent Behavior In Pakistani Youth Exposed To Community Violence: Moderating Role Of Parenting

Abstract

According to the South Asia Terrorism Portal (2020) between 2000 and 2019 Pakistan has faced more than twenty thousand civilian deaths. Beyond terrorist attacks, street, and sectarian violence, riots and protests between political parties and gun attacks are also common across the country. These kinds of community violence not only generate a violent culture in Pakistan but also a source of exposure to violence for youth on a larger scale. Th[1]is exposure to violence is a major cause of further violence perpetration among youth. Bandura's social learning theory (1986), which asserts that human behavior is transmitted through exposure to social models, provided the theoretical framework for this study. This study examines the effects of exposure to various types of community violence on youth relevance to their violent behavior among a sample of N=500 Pakistani youth living in various cities of Southern Punjab. Furthermore, this study investigates the moderating role of parenting practices between exposure to community violence and violent behavior of Pakistani youth.