BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Forensic and Legal Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1668723
This article is part of the Research TopicUnraveling the Neural Underpinnings of Antisocial Behavior and Deviance: Implications for Forensic Intervention and Legal PracticesView all articles
Natural Environment Satisfaction Moderates the Protective Effect of Legal Cognition on Adolescent Aggression
Provisionally accepted
- 1Taizhou University, Taizhou, China
- 2Wenzhou University, Wenzhou, China
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Adolescent aggression poses a threat to community well‑being and sustainable crime prevention. Grounded in situational crime prevention and social control theories, this study examined whether legal cognition (understanding of legal norms and rights) predicts lower aggression and whether natural environment satisfaction moderates this effect. In spring 2024, 518 adolescents (12–22 years) in Zhejiang Province completed validated scales of legal cognition, aggression, and environmental satisfaction. Hierarchical regression and PROCESS Model 1 analyses showed that legal cognition negatively predicted aggression (β = –0.34, p < .001) and that environmental satisfaction also inversely related to aggression (β = –0.30, p < .001). Critically, the legal cognition × environment interaction explained an additional 4.5% of aggression variance (ΔR² = .045, p = .002), with the buffering effect of legal cognition being strongest at high environmental satisfaction. These results suggest that combining legal‑norm education with enhancements to natural settings (e.g., increased green space, reduced pollution) may offer a scalable strategy for adolescent violence prevention.
Keywords: Legal Cognition, aggressive behavior, Natural environment satisfaction, Legal education, protective factors for aggression
Received: 23 Jul 2025; Accepted: 09 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wang, Fan, Chen and Xu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Shuhui Xu, Wenzhou University, Wenzhou, China
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