Physical and Verbal Aggressive Behaviour Pattern Among School Children in Urban Area of North Karnataka: A Cross Sectional Study

Background: There is growing concern with student conflict, aggression, and violence in the schools, and anger is an important contributing factor which can damage school climate. Aims and Objectives: To elucidate the differentials of aggressive behaviour among high school students and to recognize the influence of age and sex on aggressive behaviour. Material and Methods: The present cross sectional study was conducted in one of the high school in urban area, which included all 347 students (199 boys and 148 girls) of classes VII to X. The students were asked to answer, by recall method, a self-administered, pre tested, structured questionnaire indicating the types of aggressive behaviour by them in the previous month and to assess themselves with reference to the state-ments regarding physical / verbal aggression, after taking their consent. Results: Majority of the students (58.8%) were from nuclear families and 26.2 % stude-nts experienced aggressive behaviour in the family. Role models for aggressive behaviour were parents (42.3%) and TV / Cinema actors (39.0%). Overall, 241 (69.5%) children were physically aggressive in the previous month. Physical active direct and indirect aggression was significantly more common among boys than among girls. 248 (71.5%) children were verbally aggressive in the previous month. Physical aggression increased substantially from VII standard (56.9%) to X standard (84.6%). Conclusion: Aggres-sive behaviour was common among both boys and girls, with increasing trend of physical aggression from VII standard to X standard. Classroom manage-ment, counseling and life skills education strategies are recommended for channelizing the aggressive behaviour among school children