Three antecedent variables were examined to determine their effects on children's attitudes toward aggression--the child's exposure to television violence, his perceptions of his family's attitudes toward violence, and the family's socioeconomic status. Questionnaires which were completed by 434 fourth through sixth grade boys elicited responses about the above three variables and also about their attitudes toward aggression: approval of violence, willingness to use violence, perceived effectiveness of violence, and suggested solutions to conflict situations. Results of a three-way analysis of variance on each of the aggression indexes suggested that perceived effectiveness of violence is directly affected by television exposure for both middle and lower class boys (with more exposure comes more approval of violence), while the other three indexes of aggressive attitudes were affected by exposure to television for middle class boys only. For all four measures, both family attitudes toward aggression as known to the child and the social environment of the family have a persistent impact. (SH)