(Journalist’s Resource) – Teenagers with hopes and plans for the future are less likely to perpetrate violence than those without such aspirations, a new research letter published in JAMA Pediatrics finds.

The study surveyed 866 males aged 13-19 in low-resource neighborhoods in Pittsburgh. Over three-quarters of the respondents were black. The researchers asked the respondents to rate their views about a number of attitudes toward the future, including whether they expect good things to happen, whether they are excited about the future, and whether they believe they will make a difference in the world. They also asked about the teens’ experience with violence over the previous nine months.

They found that kids with positive views of the future were less likely to have threatened or injured someone with a weapon in the past nine months.

However, there was not a significant link between attitudes toward the future and the likelihood that respondents had been in a physical fight over the past nine months.

One possible explanation for these findings–that hopes for the future lowered the likelihood of threatening or injuring someone with a weapon, but did not lower the likelihood of involvement in a fight–is that kids with a positive outlook toward the future might be “more hesitant to be involved in severe forms of violence, such as perpetrating weapons-related violence,” which often carries severe consequences too, Alison Culyba, lead author of the study and assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine explained in a phone interview with Journalist’s Resource.

She continued, “The reality is that violence is often a part of their lives or the lives of their peers. Being in a fight is something experienced incredibly commonly, especially in these settings.” Having a positive outlook toward the future might not be enough to ward against all forms of violence, she said, adding that affirmative responses to whether teens were in a fight could include those who were victims or bystanders in fights, as well as perpetrators.