Manifestations of Aggression in the Adolescent Environment

Abstract

The article discusses the peculiar features of physical aggression among adolescents and the main motives that encourage them to resort to violence. It is based on the materials obtained by the researchers of the Center for Sociology of Education of the Institute of Education Management of the Russian Academy of Education in the course of an anonymous questionnaire survey of 2983 students in grades 7, 9 and 11 of Moscow schools. The analysis of the influence of gender, age, and social stratification factors reveals motivational dominants that determine the characteristic features of the adolescents’ participation in fights depending on gender and age. Special focus is given to physical aggression in the walls of an educational organization, and namely the prevalence of fights on school grounds and the adolescents’ opinions about their teachers’ reactions to fights between their students. A fairly high level of prevalence of fights among girls indicates a significant deformation of traditional gender-role behaviors in the adolescent subculture. The research results in the conclusion that manifestations of physical aggression are related to both social mechanisms of the adolescent subculture functioning and mental characteristics of adolescence