COLUMBUS – In a study that could cause a lot of parents some concern, researchers at Ohio State say their findings suggest that violence spreads like a contagious disease among adolescents.
Two professors of communication and psychology found that adolescents were up to 183 percent more likely to carry out some acts of violence if one of their friends had also committed the same act, according to their study published online in the American Journal of Public Health.
“This study shows just how contagious violence can be. Acts of violence can ricochet through a community, traveling through networks of friends,” Robert Bond, assistant professor of communication at The Ohio State University, who wrote the study along with communication and psychology professor Brad Bushman.
It doesn’t just stop at friends, Bond and Bushman say. Their results suggest the contagion extends by up to four degrees of separation, from one person to a friend, to the friend’s friend and two more friends beyond.
Although the likelihood of a teen committing a violent act diminishes as the circle widens, it doesn’t go away completely.
A student in the study was about 48 percent more likely to have participated in a serious fight if a friend had been involved in one. But they were still 18 percent more likely to have participated in a fight if a friend of a friend had.