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Risk Factor of Adolescent Aggression
Risk Factor of Adolescent Aggression
ABSTRACT
Adolescence as a transitional stage implies several changes and challenges demanding psycho-
social adjustment that could be beyond one’s coping for some adolescents who end up
developing dysfunctional adaptive behaviour such as aggression. The present study aimed at
investigating the risk factors of adolescent aggression. A total of 297 respondents constituted the
sample of the study. Among them, 63 (21.21%) adolescents were male and 234 (78.78%) were
female. A survey design was used. The descriptive statistics used for analysis of demographic
variables were frequency and percentage. Chi Square test and Fishers exact test were used to find
the risk factors of Aggression. The findings of the present study show a statistical significant
association between gender and socio-economic status on adolescent aggression.
There are major developmental changes and challenges associated with the period of
adolescence, as youth acquire and consolidate the competencies, attitudes and values necessary
to make a successful transition into adulthood. Late adolescence and the period following it,
often referred to as emerging adulthood, have been noted as particularly important for setting the
stage for continued development through the life span as individuals begin to make choices and
engage in a variety of activities that influence rest of their lives.
1
Research Scholar, Research and Development Centre, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore, India
2
Professor, Montfort College, Bangalore, India
*Responding Author
© 2016 I S Lobo, S Rekha; licensee IJIP. This is an Open Access Research distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use,
distribution, and reproduction in any Medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Risk Factors of Adolescent Aggression
Gender is a factor that plays a role in human aggression. Men are historically believed to be
generally more physically aggressive than women (Coie & Dodge 1997, Maccoby & Jacklin
1974). This is one of the most robust and reliable behavioural sex differences and has been found
across many different age groups and cultures. Rahman and Huq (2005) studied to explore
aggression in adolescent boys and girls as related to socio-economic status (SES) and residential
background in Bangladesh. They investigated 240 respondents and found that respondents with
high SES expressed more aggression than those with middle and low SES. Respondents with
middle SES expressed more aggression than the low SES and girls expressed more aggression
than boys.
Family is the most important part of a child's environment (Adams, 1966). An individual’s
experiences in early life at home with his/her family in general and parents in particular are
major determinants of a person’s adjustment process during adolescence and in later life
(Jayanagaraja, 1985). Children of physically punitive parents tend to use similar aggression when
relating to others. Their parents often disciplined them by screaming, slapping, and beating - thus
modeling aggression as a method of dealing with problems (Patterson, Chamberlain & Reid,
1982). There exists a relationship between intra familial communication and aggressive
behaviours. Van Londen et al (2013), through a cross- sectional study, examined a model in
which parenting, child social information processing and self-perception were simultaneously
tested as risk factors associated with aggression. Most studies assessing the link between parental
discipline and child aggression have focused primarily on discipline as a cause and aggression as
an outcome.
Only a paucity of research has examined risk factors for community violence exposure across
domains relevant to adolescents. Sharma, Grover and Chaturvedi (2008) conducted a Cross-
sectional study in South Delhi, India, to assess risk behaviour related to interpersonal violence
and its epidemiological correlates among 550 adolescents of various schools and colleges aged
14–19 years. The study identified a significant relationship with age p = .007) and gender (p ≤
.001) of the adolescents. The logistic regression analysis of the study showed significant
correlation of interpersonal violence with male gender, lower age, and number of close friends,
having seen role models who smoke/drink, and reside in resettlement colonies, slums or villages.
Using data from 184 adolescents and their homeroom teacher, analyses with structural equation
modelling, Bradshaw, Goldweber, Garbarino and James (2013) revealed a significant relation
between relatively mild levels of social - environmental risk and aggression. This association
was partially mediated by negatively biased social - cognitive factors (i.e., general knowledge
structures and social information processing). Findings suggest that even relatively low levels of
social rejection and community violence exposure characterizing suburban youth put them at an
increased risk of problems with aggression.
© The International Journal of Indian Psychology, ISSN 2348-5396 (e)| ISSN: 2349-3429 (p) | 151
Risk Factors of Adolescent Aggression
Several longitudinal studies and meta-analytic reviews have demonstrated that exposure to
violent media is linked to aggression over time. Coyne and Archer (2004) studied 347 British
adolescents and revealed that indirectly aggressive girls viewed more indirect aggression on
television than non-aggressive girls did. It could be that after viewing rewarded gossiping,
backbiting and rumour spreading, these girls are particularly likely to use this form of aggression
in their own lives.
Thus, the genetic disposition of the individual, the disciplinary styles adopted by the parents, the
school set-up and the environment in which the learners are situated could enhance their
aggression. Through observational experiences an adolescent can develop into an aggressor via
media influences.
Objectives
1. Prevalence of aggression among the respondents.
2. Risk factors of aggression.
Hypothesis
o Males are more aggressive than females.
© The International Journal of Indian Psychology, ISSN 2348-5396 (e)| ISSN: 2349-3429 (p) | 152
Risk Factors of Adolescent Aggression
a highly significant relation between the two groups. The hypothesis is proved. Males are found
to be more aggressive than females as per the findings of Ghosh (2013) and Biswas (1989).
The results in Table 2 clearly show that there is a statistical significant association between sex
and aggression (X2=24.094). According to the theories of aggression by Parke and Slaby (1983),
gender role and learning play a key role for anger and aggressive behaviour among males. Males
are exposed to parenting practices that promote rough-and-tumble, anger and aggressive
behaviours whereas females are exposed to parenting practices that promote caring and close
interpersonal relationships. These differential socialization practices appear to foster adolescents’
anger to a greater extent in males than in females. Also, there is a high significance between the
socio - economic status of the respondents and aggression. One probable explanation of this
finding might be related to the domain-specific theory of self-esteem (Baumeister, 1998;
Kirkpatrick, Waugh, Valencia & Webster, 2002) which states that functionally distinct domains
of self-esteem would predict aggression differentially.
Adolescents with high socio - economic status perceive superiority. Individuals with low socio -
economic status, however, perceive social exclusion. Thus, social superiority and social
exclusion emerge as reliable and positive predictors of aggression (Bushman & Baumeister,
1998). The findings of the present study may be approached from the view-point of these
© The International Journal of Indian Psychology, ISSN 2348-5396 (e)| ISSN: 2349-3429 (p) | 153
Risk Factors of Adolescent Aggression
theoretical perspectives. However, there is no significance between aggression and the other
demographic variables.
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Risk Factors of Adolescent Aggression
© The International Journal of Indian Psychology, ISSN 2348-5396 (e)| ISSN: 2349-3429 (p) | 155
Risk Factors of Adolescent Aggression
Table 4 shows 43.8% of highly aggressive adolescents and 56.3% of average/low aggressive
adolescents report unreasonably strict parental discipline. 64.4% of average/low aggressive
adolescents consider their family environment to be excellent whereas only 35.6% of highly
aggressive adolescents feel the same about their families. A large majority of the (52.4%) highly
aggressive adolescents consider their family environment to be average compared to the
average/low aggressive adolescents (47.6%). 62.6% of the average/low aggressive adolescents
consider their peers to be loving and caring whereas only 37.4% of the highly aggressive
adolescents feel the same about their peers. 66.7% of the highly aggressive adolescents
expressed that their peers always fought with them and only 33.3% of the average/low
aggressive adolescents expressed so. A larger majority of the average/low aggressive adolescents
(59.9% ) considered their teachers to be loving compared to the highly aggressive adolescents
(40.1%). Compared to their counterparts, 66.7%, 64.8% and 66.7% of the average/low
aggressive adolescents considered their teachers to be more unreasonably strict, more reasonably
strict and more aggressive, respectively. 57.1% of the average/low aggressive adolescents
considered their community to be more aggressive and violent compared to the highly aggressive
adolescents (42.9%). A higher majority of the average/low aggressive adolescents (54.2%)
always engaged in aggressive TV programmes than the highly aggressive adolescents (45.8%).
Surprisingly, the average/low aggressive adolescents always engaged in bullying behaviour more
(77.8%) than the highly aggressive adolescents (22.2%).
CONCLUSIONS
In today’s society, adolescents face daily situations that contribute to their anger. A major
contribution of the current study is the exploration of the association of adolescent’s anger with
sex and SES of a few adolescents of Mangaluru city. But the sample size was relatively small
and the study was administered in Autonomous colleges only. Future research can be carried out
on a large-scale sample covering different other colleges like government, private aided and
private colleges. Further studies are needed to measure and investigate the components
(instrumental anger, reactive anger and anger control) of anger. However, identifying and
© The International Journal of Indian Psychology, ISSN 2348-5396 (e)| ISSN: 2349-3429 (p) | 156
Risk Factors of Adolescent Aggression
understanding protective factors are equally important as researching risk factors. Future studies
may also wish to explore aspects of anger coping and its relationship with SES, gender and other
demographic factors. It would be imperative to study and analyse the hidden causal factors of
aggression, impulsivity, problems faced personally, at home or in academics as these problems
would precipitate and prevent the experience of psychological well- being. Thus identification of
causal factors would facilitate developing early preventive/curative interventions by mental
health professionals which would ensure better mental health among the adolescent population.
Acknowledgments
The author appreciates all those who participated in the study and helped to facilitate the
research process.
Conflict of Interests
The author declared no conflict of interests.
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How to cite this article: S Lobo, S Rekha (2016), Risk Factors of Adolescent Aggression,
International Journal of Indian Psychology, Volume 3, Issue 4, No. 57, ISSN 2348-5396 (e),
ISSN: 2349-3429 (p), DIP: 18.01.036/20160304, ISBN: 978-1-365-23993-9
© The International Journal of Indian Psychology, ISSN 2348-5396 (e)| ISSN: 2349-3429 (p) | 158