Aggression and attitudes toward firearm violence among high-risk youth: the moderating influence of psychological distress

Abstract Background Firearm violence remains a critical public health crisis that disproportionately affects Black children and youth, National data show that Black children experience firearm homicide rates roughly eight times higher than White children, and Black males ages 18–24 face rates nearly 23 times higher than their White peers. Although aggression is a well-established correlate of attitudes supportive of gun violence, far less is known about how cognitive–emotional processes and states (e.g., psychological distress) shape these associations among youth frequently exposed to community violence but not involved in the justice system. This study addresses this gap by examining whether psychological distress moderates the relationship between aggression profiles and attitudes toward gun violence. Objectives This exploratory study tested whether psychological distress moderates the associations between proactive aggression (PA), reactive aggression (RA), and attitudes toward guns and violence (AGVQ™). We also assessed the independent predictive effects of PA, RA, psychological distress, and depressive symptoms (PHQ-8) on AGVQ scores. Methods Baseline data were drawn from a pilot intervention study (N = 70) involving young adults at elevated risk for violence and substance use. PA and RA were modeled as independent variables, with psychological distress as a moderator. Correlation analyses and multiple linear regression were conducted in JASP (v0.18.3), and moderation analyses were performed in Python (Google Colab). Results AGVQ scores were strongly correlated with PA (r = .80, p < .001), RA (r = .70, p < .001), psychological distress (r = .69, p < .001), depressive symptoms (r = .69, p < .001), and past-year violence exposure (r = .67, p < .001). In regression analyses, PA significantly predicted AGVQ scores (b = 1.19, p < .001), whereas RA (p = .81) and psychological distress (p = .176) were not significant predictors. Moderation analyses indicated that psychological distress marginally attenuated the association between RA and AGVQ (b = − 0.05, p = .084), while no significant interaction emerged for PA. Conclusions These preliminary findings underscore the importance of distinguishing aggression subtypes when examining firearm-related attitudes among youth facing chronic adversity. Proactive aggression emerged as the most robust predictor of gun-supportive attitudes, independent of psychological distress, highlighting the need for interventions that target cognitive–emotional mechanisms underlying instrumental aggression. Future research should incorporate larger samples and examine additional sociodemographic and distress-related moderators to refine theory-driven models of firearm violence risk in marginalized populations.