CSPV
School Violence Fact Sheets
- The most significant settings for the development
of aggression in childhood are the home and school.
- Children's aggression in the home is often, but
not always, related to their aggression at school.
- Research indicates aggression in school is most
often directed at peers. Most aggression is displayed
by male students and directed at male students.
- Female incidents of aggression appear at lower but
not negligible rates.
- Assaults on teachers are not uncommon. A national
survey in 1991 found that 28% of public high school
teachers were verbally abused, 15% threatened with
injury, and 3% were physically attacked by a student.
- Research shows that weapon carrying in schools significantly
varies by school setting. The number of students carrying
a weapon in some schools is much higher than in other
schools.
- Research indicates that typical school fights are
about retaliation, rules of games, and possession
of toys, equipment and/or territory.
- Children's physical aggression in schools is important
not only because of the harm it inflicts, but also
because it has long term consequences for settings
beyond the school. For instance, consistent physical
aggression by boys in schools predicts later antisocial
acts, delinquency, and violent offending in the community.
- A proportion of boy fighters have already emerged
during kindergarten. When the fighting persists through
the first part of elementary school, these boys are
highly likely to continue to fight in later grades.
Other fighters emerge during the elementary years
or a little later. Yet, most of the boys who fight
appear already aggressive by age eight or nine.
- Early identification of the aggressive, antisocial,
or delinquent child is one of the most important markers
for identifying chronic juvenile delinquency.
- Juvenile aggression tends to be stable over time.
One of the research challenges is to identify youth
before their aggression becomes stable.
- Youth behavior can be charted on a developmental
pathway that contains incremental stages for delinquency
and violence. On this pathway individuals begin with
minor offenses and work their way up to more serious
offenses. The earlier the minor offenses begin, the
more likely the individual will eventually engage
in more serious violent behavior.
- Early onset of problem behaviors and children's
position on the developmental pathway are important
markers that can help identify those youth at highest
risk for violence.
- The theoretical model that best explains the transmission
and consistency of aggression across settings (such
as the home and school) is the person-environment
model. This model integrates children's family functioning
with their relationships with peers outside the home.
- Interventions are probably most effective if they
can address both the individual characteristics of
children and the social contingencies that affect
their aggressive responses.
- Child abuse, parents' inadequate child rearing practices,
disruptions in family functioning, antisocial parents,
and aggressive interactions between siblings are risk
factors in the home that are associated with children's
aggression at school.
- There is evidence that juveniles' aggression in
the home influences their level of aggression in the
school setting; therefore, interventions in the home
appear to be more beneficial than school interventions.
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