Aggression in Adolescents: Strategies for Educators

Middle school and high school educators know that it comes with the territory: Sooner or later, a fight will break out between students. Bringing together a large group of cognitively immature and emotionally volatile adolescents against their collected wills into a confined space for seven hours almost mandates the outbreak of trouble. One might wonder how it is that most schools manage as well as they do! In comparison to physical bullying, relational aggression, and the numerous forms of verbal and nonverbal harassment that permeate many secondary school environments, violent physical aggression is a statistically less frequent, though equally troubling, event. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES, 2007), in the year 2005, 14 % of students in grades 9 through 12 reported having been in a physical fight on school property in the last 12 months. Although male students were more likely to have been in a fight, 8.8 % of female students reported that they had been in a physical fight on school property in the past year, a slight increase from the previous survey. In addition, approximately 5 % of teachers in central city schools and 3 % in suburban and rural schools were physically attacked by students. Regardless of the frequency at any individual school, the disruptive level of violence that accompanies serious physical aggression is so antithetical to the learning environment that even a few incidents demand attention. A fight between students in a classroom, hallway, or lunchroom brings every other activity to