Rough Physical Play in Adolescents: Does It Serve a Dominance Function?

Abstract

In Study 1, a questionnaire was designed to investigate secondary school pupils' participation in, and perceptions of, playful and aggressive fighting. It was administered to a sample of 13- to 16-year-old male and female pupils who attended 5 different schools. The majority of pupils (and significantly more males than females) reported that they did engage in playful fighting. Most pupils also indicated that it was possible to tell whether other students were engaged in playful as opposed to aggressive fighting, attesting to the view that playful and aggressive fighting should be seen as separate categories of behavior. Other results converged to indicate that, unlike during the childhood years, playful fighting may be used by some individuals (especially males) to establish and display dominance positions. The responses of some pupils (again more males than females) also suggested that prowess in aggressive fighting was valued, in many cases because it deterred other pupils from directing unwanted behav...