Gender attitudes, school violence and well-being among Chilean adolescents

Gender attitudes are of interest to psychology due to their correlation with various risk behaviors such as aggressive behavior among adolescents, greater violence in their romantic relationships, perpetration of physical violence against the female partner and homophobic attacks. In Chile, gender attitudes are of public concern due to the rates of violence in the adolescent population; however, the association between gender attitudes, school violence and subjective well-being in this population has been scarcely studied. For this reason, the objective of this article is to examine the relationship between gender attitudes, school violence and subjective well-being in Chilean adolescents. The sample was based on 882 adolescents from 7 to 12th grade (48.5% female, average age of 12.4 years). Four scales were used to examine the relationship between gender attitudes, school violence and subjective well-being, using structural equations modeling. We modeled multiple mediations, where the relationship between gender attitudes and well-being was mediated by perpetration, but not for victimization. The results show that gender attitudes are associated with higher reports of school violence, both as perpetrator and as victim. At the same time, school violence is associated with lower subjective well-being in perpetrators, but not in victims. Addressing this problem is vital as a way to educate on equitable gender attitudes, prevent the development of violent behavior and promote subjective well-being of adolescents in Chile.